Just one week after Barney Frank introduced a bill to regulate online gambling in the US, Rep. Shelly Berkley has followed up on Frank’s iniative introducing bill H.R. 2140 to the House of Representatives this past Thursday. The new bill proposes that a study be done by the National Academy of Sciences to analyze what the proper response is in how the US should adress the online gambling issue. Not surprisingly, Barney Frank is one of the bills co-sponors of the bill along with 59 other congressman. The actions to be taken on the bill include sending the issue to the three committees being financial services, judiciary and ways and means.
Although Berkley has traditionally been in support of repealing the UIGEA in recent months she was careful to jutisfy her reasoning for her proposed bill as she told the Las Vegas Review Journal, “One of the advantages of this legislation is that it doesn’t take a side. It doesn’t say Internet gambling is good or bad. It says ‘Let’s study the issue.”
A typical political response if you ask me, but it seems that probes into the UIGEA legislation are becoming more frequent as pressures from both players and operators continue to question the merit of last years legislation. The key factor however is how the goverment responds to these proposals and if they are willing to open their eyes to the potential that a regulated online gaming market in the US would create….only time will tell.
