Hearing on Internet Gambling This Friday

As the battle over online gambling rages on, there’s finally a bit of good news. This Friday, June 8th, at 10 a.m. on Capitol Hill, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services will be conducting a hearing to talk about the possible regulation of online gambling in the United States.

Entitled ‘Can Internet Gambling Be Effectively Regulated to Protect Consumers and the Payment System?’, the hearing will include an impressive list of witnesses who were invited to testify. They include professional poker player Howard Lederer; Gerald Kitchen, CEO of SecureTrading Ltd.; Radley Balko, Senior Editor of Reason Magazine; Jon Prideaux, Chief Executive of Asterion Payments; and Pastor Greg Hogan, the father of a college student who claimed that online poker debts forced him to rob a bank in December of 2005.

The House Committee on Financial Services also happens to be chaired by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MS), who recently introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation Enforcement Act aimed at repealing the law currently in place. According to Frank, his bill has received bipartisan backing from among the 70 members of the committee. He has specifically pointed out the support of members Ron Paul (R-TX) and Peter King (R-NY).

Still, the bill will no doubt face an uphill battle, even in the committee phase. While he does have the support of some Republicans, Frank’s bill has only netted 19 of his 69 colleagues as co-sponsors. That means that there’s still a long way to go.

The hearing will also probably influence the fate of the recent bill proposed by Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV). Named H.R. 2140, it provides for the study of Internet gambling by the National Academy of Sciences. This bill is currently awaiting deliberation by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Check back with Dare to Gamble, as we’ll be sure and bring you any new developments in this story which will have a major impact on the future of online gambling in the United States.

In the meantime, be sure and read the following articles:

Bush Administration Ignores WTO Ruling

Rep. Shelley Berkley Introduces Online Gambling Legislation

Hearing on Internet Gambling This Friday