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Here's Sen. Kyl and Rep. Bachus' letter to Congress concerning HR 5767:
April 22, 2008
Dear Colleague:
For the past year, the Internet gambling lobby and its congressional
supporters have worked hard to gut the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act of 2006 (“UIGEA”). Most recently, Representatives
Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced H.R. 5767, which would prohibit
federal agencies from issuing any regulations that would give effect to
UGIEA.
The Frank-Paul bill’s prohibition on issuing Internet gambling
regulations would eliminate the most effective enforcement tool
available for stopping illegal online gambling. The bill would result
in the de facto repeal of federal and state gambling control laws and
would likely result in a massive expansion of gambling on the Internet.
We urge you not to be deceived by the claims of the Internet gambling
interests. During this Congress alone, offshore Internet gambling
enterprises have paid millions of dollars to lobbyists in an effort to
overturn UIGEA. For example, according to a recent Roll Call article,
those trying to thwart UIGEA are “shelling out eye-popping sums for K
Street’s top talent” (3/31/08, “Internet Gambling Ban Back on Table”).
The Internet gambling industry, which was making billions of dollars a
year taking illegal bets from Americans, was furious when UIGEA was
enacted into law after a decade of congressional debate and
development. To enforce existing federal and state laws banning
Internet gambling, UIGEA required the government agencies with the
relevant knowledge and expertise — the Federal Reserve and the
Department of Treasury, in consultation with the Department of Justice
— to issue regulations to enforce existing federal and state laws that
make Internet gambling illegal. Immediately after Congress passed
UIGEA, many online gambling outfits closed their doors because of the
prospect that existing laws would finally be strongly enforced.
Now, in an effort to recapture billions of dollars in illicit profits,
Internet gambling interests are trying to convince Congress that the
regulations will be ineffective. But, if the regulations mandated by
UIGEA will be ineffective against illegal online gambling, why are
Internet gambling interests spending millions of dollars to effectively
repeal UIGEA?
The reason: UIGEA is already beginning to cripple them. The Annenberg
Public Policy Center, which conducts the annual National Annenberg
Survey of Youth, found that weekly Internet gambling among college-aged
youth declined nearly 75% between 2006 and 2007, falling from 5.8% to
1.5% just one year after the enactment of UIGEA. Internet gambling is
highly addictive, as it brings the casino into the home and office, and
it is particularly attractive to minors and young adults. While no law
enforcement is perfectly effective, the Annenberg data shows that
passage of UIGEA, which called for financial regulations to enforce
Internet gambling prohibitions, has already significantly reduced the
prevalence of Internet gambling in the United States, even though
regulations required to fully implement the law have not been
finalized.
Please oppose any efforts to rollback UIGEA or to delay finalization of the regulations.
Jon Kyl
Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee
Spencer Bachus
Ranking Member
House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
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