Poker Legislation
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Here's a new letter from Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Ron Paul (R-TX),
Peter King (R-NY), and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) to the Treasury Dept (a
similar one went to the Federal Reserve). The letters are at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press...anke042108.pdf and http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press...lson042108.pdf:
April 21, 2008
The Honorable Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220
Dear Mr. Secretary:
As you know, on Wednesday, April 2, the Committee on Financial Services
Subcommittee on Domestic and International and Monetary Policy held a
hearing entitled, “Proposed UIGEA Regulations: Burden Without Benefit?”
to examine the regulations issued last year by your agency and the
Federal Reserve on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
(UIGEA). At that hearing, the testimony of your representatives and the
industry made it clear that the regulations are unworkable.
Subsequently, we introduced new legislation, H.R. 5767, which would
prohibit their implementation.
The regulations, like the underlying legislation, fail to define the
term “unlawful internet gambling,” leaving it to each financial
institution to reconcile conflicting state and federal laws, court
decisions and inconsistent Department of Justice interpretations, when
determining whether to process a transaction. Furthermore, some of the
information needed to make this determination would likely be
unavailable to banks, because customers or financial institutions in
foreign jurisdictions will likely be unwilling or unable to provide it.
At the hearing, representatives from your agency and the Federal
Reserve admitted that there are substantial problems in crafting
regulations to implement the UIGEA in a manner that does not have a
substantial adverse effect on the efficiency of the nation’s payment
system.
Your agency and the Federal Reserve have been struggling to issue these
regulations, but as the hearing made clear, the underlying statute
makes your job extremely difficult, if not impossible. Given the many
other priorities that are pending at your agencies, including the
mortgage crisis, HOEPA, and UDAP rulewriting and many other issues, we
believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency
resources to this Sisyphean task, especially as we intend to vigorously
pursue legislation to prevent the implementation of these regulations.
BARNEY FRANK
Chairman
Committee on Financial Services
RON PAUL
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy
LUIS V. GUTIERREZ
Chairman
Subcommittee on Domestic and International
Monetary Policy
PETER KING
Member
Committee on Financial Services
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Things are moving! Please do your part by writing and calling Congress. The letter is at www.pokerplayersalliance.org/letter
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