This week Representative Peter King (R-NY) introduced a new online gaming bill into the House of Representatives, called the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2013. The bill is nearly identical to a bill introduced in 2011 by Representative John Campbell (R-CA) and is goes much further than more recent attempts by Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) that sought to carve out a niche for online poker while strengthening restrictions on other forms of gambling. The senate has also flirted with introducing iGaming legislation, but an effort by Nevada Senators Harry Reid and Dean Heller sputtered out earlier this year.

Representative King is the latest Republican to jump on the iGaming bandwagon, perhaps seeing the inevitability of it all, as Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have already legalized iGaming. King’s bill would seek to consolidate power at the federal level while still allowing states to craft their own regulations, which would pave the way for inter-state online gambling down the road: “A common federal standard will ensure strong protections for consumers, protect against problem and underage gambling, and make it easier for businesses, players, lawmakers and regulators to navigate and freely participate,” King said in a statement released on Thursday.

Most of the in-the-know people in poker see little chance the bill will be able to muster the support needed to pass the contentious House of Representatives –personally I see the bill struggling to even navigate through the committee process. Meanwhile the Poker Players Alliance has trumpeted the effort of Peter King, via a press release sent out on Thursday by John Pappas, the Executive Director of the PPA:

“On behalf of the PPA membership and millions of poker players in the United States, I thank Congressman King for his commitment to protecting Americans’ freedom to play poker on the Internet,” said former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the PPA. “States are already moving to regulate online gaming. In order to avoid a patchwork of state laws that limit player pools and provides consumer protections only to Americans in those states, it is time for Congress to step up and pass federal legislation.”

The PPA included a bulleted list of items that are in the bill, which includes the following provisions:

* Requires states to be certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury to license potential operators. States may choose to participate in the national online gaming market without becoming a licensing agent, however;

* Authorizes federal funding to address problem gambling addiction, similar to what is in place for all other types of addiction;

* Gives states the freedom to opt-out of Internet gaming. Governors must notify the Department of Treasury that their state will opt-out within 120 days of passage of the bill, and opting out will NOT prohibit states from establishing their own intra-state online gaming regimes;

* Ensures mandatory implementation of technologies to protect against underage gambling using the commercial and government databases used for online banking to verify age and identity;

* Allows equal access to licenses for all providers, including Indian tribes and lotteries;

* Preserves the traditional authority of regulators to determine the suitability of online operators when evaluating license applications; and

* Contains high standards to thwart fraud, abuse and cheating to ensure fair games for customers.

The Full PPA Statement can be found here: http://theppa.org/legislation/2013/06/06/internet-gambling-regulation-enforcement-and-consumer-protection-act-of-2013/

You can read the newly introduced bill in full here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/146134026/Internet-Gambling-Regulation-Enforcement-and-Consumer-Protection-Act-of-2013

You can find more opinions on the new bill at the following links:

Meet the New Bill, Same as the Old Bill by Chris Grove

CLIFFS: Federal Online Gaming Bill Introduced by U.S. Representative Peter King by PokerXanadu

 

This entry was posted on Friday, June 7th, 2013 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Poker 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.