The US House of Representatives has passed on Tuesday HR 4411, or the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act,a bill that aims to stamp online gambling, inlcuding online poker, in the US.

HR 4411 is a bill that merges the two separate online gambling prohibition bills championed by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and James Leach, R-Iowa. As was the case when Goodlatte’s bill appeared before a House committee and subcommittee in recent months, much debate continues to center around the issue of exemptions for certain types of gambling over the Internet.

Goodlatte argued during the hearing that all gambling has historically been illegal in the United States unless it is expressly regulated by state authorities. Supporters of his bill argued against online gambling sucking billions of dollars away from the American economy, fostering addiction and family problems, serving as a vehicle for money laundering and is run by disreputable “offshore, fly-by-night operations.”

Critics, however, say the bill has loopholes. Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va. stated that there is nothing in the bill to prohibit Internet gambling and demonstrated that rather than targeting the act of gambling, HR 4411 actually targets the operating of an online gambling business. He added that the sites that run online gambling businesses are already based outside the U.S. out of the reach of authorities.

As HR 4411 now stands, individual states would preserve the right to regulate Internet gambling if they so choose.

Although the language of HR 4411 preserves states’ rights to regulate online gambling, it is thought that a state would have to use appropriate technology to verify gamblers ages and identities and that such regulations would be for intrastate gambling only. Goodlatte noted, however, that he does not believe technology exists to verify a Web surfers’ location, so he envisions his bill as an all-out prohibition.

The bill will now go to the US Senate for hearings where many observers predict a tougher battle.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Online Poker, Poker Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.