The clock is ticking before a final vote on H.R. 3125, which is likely to
be
voted upon this evening in the House of Representatives, following debate
this afternoon. While a copy of
the actual changes to the bill is unavailable before the vote, Rep.
Goodlatte announced last week that language had been added so that the bill
does not expand gambling on the Internet. The modification presumably
clarifies that
the bill prohibits all online gambling and only otherwise lawful
State-regulated live pari-mutuel wagering activities that are conducted on
a
closed loop, subscriber-based system, not on the open Internet, are
permitted.
In a nutshell, if the bill passes with this language, it will be up to the
racing industry to prove on a state-by-state basis that closed-loop
pari-mutuel wagering was already legal under pre-3125 laws. If the industry
were successful in proving this, legal online pari-mutuel wagering would be
grandfathered in and thus would not be an expansion of gambling.
Ironically,
one of the few things legislators have agreed upon in debates last month is
that some sort of bill is necessary because pre-3125 laws don't properly
cover new technologies such as the Internet.
Already there's been an outcry against the latest version of the House
version of the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. The Free Congress
Foundation immediately let their displeasure with the new language known.
"Some of these members come from very conservative and religious districts
and so they want to be able to say they are doing something about Internet
Gambling," explained foundation VP Lisa Dean, "but they took the easy way
out and turned to the courts to solve many of the problems."
Most recently, Robert Raben, the Assistant Attorney General from the
Department of Justice wrote to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert
explaining that the bill would make certain types of gambling legal over
the
Internet that are not legal in the physical world. Additionally, the DOJ
suggests that the bill may bring even murkier enforcement issues in its
wake, and would be inconsistent with current Federal gambling laws.
Click here to read the complete letter from the Department of Justice.