US House seen approving Internet gambling ban

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House on Tuesday was
expected to approve a Republican-written bill to crack down on
Internet gambling, in what critics said was an election-year
appeal to the party’s conservative base.

The bill aimed to ban most forms of Internet gambling,
which generates some $12 billion annually worldwide. It is part
of the Republican party’s emphasis on moral values as
congressional elections approach this fall.

“This is a scourge on our society. It causes innumerable
problems,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, one of the bill’s sponsors, said
in a speech on the House floor. Goodlatte, a Virginia
Republican, has sought to pass an Internet gambling ban for
nearly a decade.

Opponents, meanwhile, criticized the bill as a politically
motivated bid to stir up social conservatives and boost
Republican prospects in the November elections.

“It’s politics, plain and simple,” said Michael Bolcerek,
president of the 30,000-member Poker Players Alliance, which is
willing to support some regulation of online poker games but
opposes an outright ban.

Debate on the bill began on the House floor on Tuesday
morning, with a vote expected later in the day. Backers
expressed confidence that the bill would win approval.

Prospects for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate
remained unclear with relatively few work days left before the
November elections. Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl was said to
be seeking a Senate bill to which he could attach anti-gambling
language.

The House bill, sponsored by Goodlatte and Iowa Republican
Jim Leach, would make it illegal for banks and credit card
companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

BROAD SUPPORT FROM CONSERVATIVES

It has broad support among conservative and religious
activist groups, which want to keep gambling out of easy reach
of minors. To win more backing among lawmakers, the bill
included language specifically exempting horse racing and
lotteries, and dropped enforcement provisions for banks that
fail to block credit card payments, according to congressional
aides.

The bill would have broad impact on the Internet gambling
industry, which gets half its revenue from American gamblers.
Lawmakers say an estimated 2,300 gambling sites now exist on
the Internet.

Investors in some British-based gaming companies such as
Partygaming Plc and 888 Holdings Plc have closely monitored
U.S. legislation. In Tuesday trading on the London Stock
Exchange, 888 Holdings was up about 1.5 percent while
Partygaming was unchanged.

A spokesman for Leach, Greg Wierzynski, denied suggestions
that the move was politically-motivated. He noted that Leach
has been pushing Congress to take up the issue for many years.

“It’s not an effort to assuage or pander to a specific
interest group,” Wierzynski said.

Democrat Barney Frank of Massachusetts said he thought the
bill was “outrageous.”

“If people want to do something, and it doesn’t hurt
anybody else, we ought to mind our own business,” Frank said on
Monday. “This is a bill to tell adults not to do something
because people in this body disapprove of what they do.”

House lawmakers will debate one proposed amendment, which
would eliminate the exceptions in the bill for horseracing and
state-owned lotteries. “Let’s get rid of all of this if we are
going to do it,” said Democrat John Conyers of Michigan.