While the testimony of three U.S. legislators grabbed most of the spotlight at yesterday's U.S. House hearing on Internet gambling, a second panel, composed of witnesses from the private sector, focused on some additional key issues.
Officials with the National Indian Gaming Association, a national bank, the NCAA and the Gaming Impact Study Commission were on hand to testify about Internet gambling before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. eLOT, a company that specializes in the sale and marketing of state and nationally licensed lotteries on the Web, was the only company represented from an industry that some members of the committee seek to ban.
The second panel was composed of Mike Farmer, Wachovia Bank Services; Bob Federicks, chairman of the NCAA's committee on sportsmanship and ethics; Mark Van Norman, executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association; Edwin J. McGuinn, CEO of eLOT Inc.; and Dr. Timothy Kelley, from the National Gambling Impact Study.
Farmer and his company were singled out by members of the committee for their revolutionary step to ban all Wachovia credit cards from being used for Internet gambling.
"We declined Internet gaming transactions to mitigate our losses," he said. "There are considerable incentives for merchants to circumvent this policy."
Van Norman, meanwhile, said his group remains neutral on the issue of Internet gambling and how the government should handle it, but he did say if the activity is made legal, Indian tribes who have a gaming interest shouldn't be left out of the equation.
"Forty percent of tribes are involved in gaming, while nearly 70 percent of states are involved in gaming," he said. "We are not in favor of legislation, nor do we oppose any. We just feel that if Internet gaming is legalized in the U.S. we want Indian tribes to be able to take advantage of that."
Each witness gave opening remarks, and the remainder of the hearing was rather uneventful.
The only witness who the committee asked questions of was McGuinn, and many of those questions centered on his belief that the sale of lottery tickets online could be regulated so that minors and residents of restricted states are kept from buying tickets.
"There are a host of things that can be done," he said. "Everything from biometrics at one end, to asking simple questions like 'where is your mortgage at and what is the balance of it,' to ensure you have the adult and not a minor."
McGuinn also pointed out that anyone who finds a way to beat the system and wins wouldn't be paid.
"They would have to physically come and claim their prize," he said. "If they are a minor it would be checked and if they lived in another state they wouldn't get their winnings."