Bush Moves To Shut Down Web Gambling

White House Working To Finish Regulations Enforcing Law Against Internet Gambling

(AP)  The Bush administration is moving in its last weeks to complete regulations to enforce a controversial law that seeks to block Internet gambling. The move is drawing hot protests from Democratic lawmakers and supporters of online betting.

"This midnight rulemaking will tie the hands of the new administration, burden the financial services industry at a time of economic crisis and contradict the stated intent of the Financial Services Committee," the committee's Democratic chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, wrote this week to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Frank asked Paulson to postpone the regulation, which was reviewed by the White House budget office last week, usually a final step before publication in the Federal Register.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in response Tuesday that "no regulations are being rushed. They are all going through the process and getting the full due diligence required." She said she could not comment specifically on the Internet gambling rule because it was not yet final.

At issue is a law Congress passed hastily in 2006 when Senate Republicans, pushed by then-Majority Leader Bill Frist, attached it to an unrelated port security bill in a rush of year-end legislation. The law sought to curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers.

The result has been a cascade of disputes, because the law offered no clear definition of Internet gambling, instead referring to existing federal and state laws that themselves provoke differing interpretations.

Banks, credit unions and others have protested about being put in the position of enforcing an unclear law complicated by the difficulty of determining where payments are going and the fact that online betting businesses can disguise themselves with relative ease.

Officials with the Treasury and Federal Reserve testified before Frank's committee this year that they struggled to write the implementing regulation because of the law's vagueness. The regulation they proposed would require designated payment systems to establish procedures to identify and prohibit Internet gambling transactions. The regulation does not attempt a definition of illegal online gambling.

Frank's committee passed legislation in September to block the regulation and instead require rulemaking to define the term "unlawful Internet gambling."

The bill never passed the House, and the Treasury Department sent over its proposed final rule for review by the White House budget office late last month.

"It is irresponsible for the Bush administration to rush through a fundamentally flawed regulation that even representatives of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve have stated on record is unworkable," said Jeffrey Sandman, spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, which represents online gambling groups.

[yetimaster]

Actually i think this is the link...
http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/foia/ElectronicCommentForm.cfm?doc_id=R-1298&doc_ver=1&name=Prohibition%20on%20Funding%20of%20Unlawful%20Internet%20Gambling&date=20071001a

[yetimaster]

America is land of the free. We invented poker. Now a bill has slipped in to take away our choice to enjoy an online game. This does not help the economy in any away by getting rid of it. Regardless if you agree with online gaming you probably believe in many of our American freedoms. This is just another way goverment can control us. Whats next, they tell us what to read?

Fill out the petition on the link and state:
* The federal agencies responsible for our nation''s economy should not be focused on Internet poker regulations.
* Finalization of the UIGEA rules will add additional burdens on our already crippled financial systems.
* Internet poker is a game of skill and form of recreation for millions of Americans; it should be exempted from the UIGEA.
* Please do not finalize the UIGEA regulations until their impact on our banking systems and average Americans has been fully studied.

Thanks

Please send this on





http://www.stoxpoker.com/blogentry_more.php?blogid=3380&langid=1&memberblog=false#MORE

[markavelli2]

Speculating oil from your home computer is more of a gamble than texas holdem. And Bush has already said he will veto any bills restricting oil speculators.

Bush is a moron. Unethical, synical, spitefull.....

[markavelli2]

Amazing, bush has no probs deregulating whatever he can but i guess a little online gambling is too much for him? Whats the problem Bush? afraid us common folk will go broke before your taxes and corporations can wipe us clean?

The only internet gambling I''m in favor of regulating is the one we make every four years on people we don''t really know saying things we don''t really understand and offering us promises we can''t really believe. Talk about your odds plummeting!

[downsteamjim]

What are the odds the regulation fails?

[barbaram99]

yer can''t gamble on the computer in WA state. I live here. It is barred. I don''t buy them lotty tickets. They can choose not to pay the winner. I don''t visit the casinos. If bush can make it illegal to bet on the computer , I am in favour of it. WA state yer can''t. I AM NOT A CHURCHY PERSON.

[jt_lancer]

azure11: "Online gambling SHOULD be ended. Or at the very least, taxed extremely heavy. If these morons want to throw their money away, then it may as well do some good for the country."

OR, you could mind your own *** business and let people make their own decisions.....

[jt_lancer]

Let''s see... You are a CRIMINAL if you engage in online betting. Yet, states are continuously running TV ads to encourage you a buy Lotto tickets from the state-run, monopolized lottery.

In other words, gambling is only OK if it is sanctioned by the state and they can get a piece of the action?

Sounds more like the mob to me.

Tony Soprano for President!

[initialna]

either way if they are "idiots" and want to give thier money away that is thier choice, not uncle sam''s. Many of our forefathers died to provide the same freedom to the "idoit" that you enjoy. And indiana... the seperation of church and state post was intended to contend with the radicalist who posted relegious beliefs as a reason to end online gambling, when that clearly has no place in this discussion.

[indianaman13]

Hey prometheus41, you know greek mythology but not the bible? Deteronomy has whole sections about how its O.K. to slaughter a whole village, men, women, children, and livestock, if one villager worships a different God. Taking that into consideration, then Bush''s actions make sense since most those he bombed don''t believe in Jesus as our lord and Savior.

"Thou shall have no other Gods before me" was a commandment before Jesus showed up, yet now people say Jesus is God. Hmmm, God can''t contradict himself but MAN sure can.

[indianaman13]

what does separating church and state have to do with online gambling? InitialINA?

The only reason the government is trying to outlaw online poker is simply because they get no action from it. No taxes, no tariffs, or anything at all. Online horse betting they get a cut from the bookie, online or not, same goes for stocks. They get their cut from those semi-legal activities, that is why they are semi-legal. If online poker sites gave 5% of their takings, I guarantee online poker will become legal.

[initialna]

Sin or not it is not the place of the government to either decide or enforce. This concept was so important that they put it at the top of the Amendments. I don%u2019t care what your personal opinion is, it%u2019s unconstitutional.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." %u2013 Thomas Jefferson

[aldon61]

I''m not a fan of on-line gambling, but it is a moral issue and therefore a choice one has to make. Our country is a DISASTER; why in the h.ell is this even being thought about at this time? Bush needs to get the h.ell out of Dodge and stop dealing in trivial personal choices. Big Brother has already done enough!

[rwcln]

But the bill says its Ok to bet the ponies and the lotto. Does Bush realize this bill is one of the reasons the democrats took both houses in the 2006 election? Maybe Bush is a closet democrat. In the meantime you can still gamble in the casinos. Freakin hypocrites.

[citizenusa-2009]

prometheus41: Sadly, you are absolutely correct. This man hid behind the Bible to impose HIS will upon the people. God help us all!

[citizenusa-2009]

Baby Bush is DESPERATE and OUT OF CONTROL! He needs to be CENSORED!!! When he leaves the White House for good, the "men in white coats" will be escorting him to the "short bus".

[citizenusa-2009]

As a lot of posters have noted, Bush has taken the liberty of running this country based on HIS religious beliefs. He struck down stem cell research time and time again, because HIS religion does not support it! Are you kidding me? Had we elected Jerry Falwell, the result would have been the same! Prediction, Baby Bush will eventually end up in a mental institution...oh, I forgot Reagen outlawed those types of treatment centers...OH NO, Bush will be in our society!!! Take cover!!!!

[dante805]

Why leave this for Obama, an admitted internet gambler. Seems like the wheels of Govt are turning just fine. The Messiah is here to save the auto industry so lets leave that *** in the punch bowl for him. Sorry Harry and Nan you dont get to pull one more over on the GOP this year.

[citizenusa-2009]

My "bet" is that when Obama sat down to talk with Bush, he was horrified to realize our country has been run by a man who is, in effect, severely brain damaged.

Obama now knows what the American people have known for YEARS. Bush is incompetent and (as Ted Turner said)and one of the most dangerous men in the world.

The AMERICAN ECONOMY is crumbling and this wild eyed bible thumper wants to stop online gambling??? ***????