Barney Frank to Markup Internet Gambling Bill in July

This last Wednesday saw a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee in which Congressman Barney Frank announced his intentions to markup HR2267 the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act this coming July.

Frank chairs the House Financial Services Committee in which the markup will take place. There was due to be a hearing in April which had to be postponed and now three months later it looks like the Bill complete with 69 co-sponsors will finally be marked up.

In Wednesday’s hearing Frank announced his intentions to the relief of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Poker’s strongest lobbying outfit. The PPA have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to try and help educate members of Congress on the effects and the prospect of legalising and importantly regulating internet gambling. They have clearly had some success as during Wednesday’s hearing many members of the Ways and Means Committee were actively involved in the discussion and pitched questions at two expert panels.

The PPA’s Executive Director John Pappas revealed:

“In the couple of weeks leading up to this hearing, when we were meeting with people on both sides of the aisle, they said they’re not going in with any preconceived notions.”

This open-mindedness may be needed when the Bill finally comes before the Financial Services Committee who have been quite busy of late with such trivialities as banking reform, health care and the worst US recession since the Great Depression. The markup will still occur after the June 1^st deadline for financial services to comply with the UIGEA guidelines. It will be interesting to see what impact these will have on the poker business over the next few months.

The vagaries that abound in the rushed through UIGEA Act are predicted to cause enormous backlash from financial institutions who are essentially being given powers of judge jury and executioner given the lack of clarity of the ill-conceived Act. Many are now predicting that this backlash will bring the argument to the fore and will help Frank deliver his Bill in July.

Only two weeks ago the PPA petitioned Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner to clarify the UIGEA Act and to add an amendment which would make peer-to-peer gaming legal. This amendment would effectively legalise poker in the United States and bring renewed competition against Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.