Poker Legislation
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Dear
Mr. SFDetroitMan:
Thank
you for informing me of your support for legalizing financial transactions through internet gambling
websites. Your thoughts on this important matter are most welcome and appreciated.
As
you know, Internet gambling is a 24-hour a day activity, which oftentimes undercuts a player's perception
of the value of cash leading to addiction, severe debt, and illegal activity. And, because age
verification is difficult to measure online, Internet gambling creates a major risk for minors who may
not understand the seriousness behind the transfer of electronic funds. Still, Internet gambling
is more than a social problem; it is a national security concern as well. According to the Department
of Justice, Internet gambling not only damages communities, but also is used to launder money.
In 2006, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) under title VIII of the
SAFE Port Act (P.L. 109-347), which prohibits gambling businesses from accepting checks, credit cards
charges, electronic transfers, and similar payments in connection with illegal Internet gambling.
To
implement the requirements of UIGEA, in October 2007, the Federal Reserve Board and Department of the
Treasury released a notice of proposed rulemaking. Specifically, the proposed rule designates payment
systems which could be used by participants in connection with a restricted transaction; exempts certain
participants in certain designated payment systems from the requirements of the regulation; and requires
non-exempt participants to establish and implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent
or prohibit restricted transactions. The comment period for this proposed rule closed in December
2007. Presently, the Federal Reserve Board and the Department of the Treasury are evaluating the
comments, but have not released a final rule.
To
prohibit the implementation of internet gambling regulations, on April 10, 2007, Representative Barney
Frank (MA) introduced H.R. 5767. If enacted, this legislation would ban the Secretary of the Treasury
and the Federal Reserve Board from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation to prohibiting
the acceptance of financial transactions for unlawful internet gambling. On April 2, 2008, the
House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on proposed UIGEA regulations. On June 25, 2008,
the House Financial Services Committee defeated H.R. 5767 by a bi-partisan voice vote. At this
time, it is unclear if this issue will be considered again during the 110th
Congress.
In
a related matter, to provide a framework for legal internet gambling, on April 26, 2007, Representative
Barney Frank (MA) introduced H.R. 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007.
If enacted, H.R. 2046 would allow the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) to
adopt a framework for legal internet gambling. Specifically, FINCEN would be authorized to license
online gambling sites annually and require the sites to use age identification technologies and pay the
appropriate licensing fees, which would cover the cost of monitoring online gambling sites. Importantly,
online gambling sites which are not licensed by FINSEN would be considered illegal and would be subject
to the penalties incurred by the Internet Gambling Prohibition Enforcement Act. Presently, H.R.
2046 awaits action in the House Financial Services Committee.
Rest
assured, your thoughts on this important issue will be remembered during the 110th
Congress. Again, thank you for contacting me; and for all you do for our community and our country.
Should you have any further comments or questions on this or any other issue, please contact me at the
Livonia or Milford
district, or Washington ,
D.C. office.
I
work for you.
Sincerely,
Thaddeus
G. McCotter
Member of Congress
P.S. In an effort to conserve paper and save taxpayer dollars,
please subscribe to our email list so we can more efficiently provide you with updates on important issues
to the 11th District.
He did not support the H.R. 5767 “Payment Systems
Protection Act.”
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Found out that my congressman serves on committees that
are looking at the following bills that help out internet poker players:
H.R. 2046
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2046
Introduced by Rep. Frank April 26, 2007, and also called the
Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007, this bill would give
states the power to decide individually whether or not they want to allow
online gambling. It’s currently in the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and
Consumer Protection with 48 cosponsors.
H.R. 2610
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2610
Introduced by Rep. Robert Wexler (FL) June 7, 2007, this
bill calls for certain games, poker included, to be legally defined as games of
skill. If passed, poker, as an official skill game, would be exempted from the
UIGEA. It remains in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland
Security with 22 cosponsors.
Called his office today and spoke with a representative
about having my congressman support these bills. The representative listened to my concerns
about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and is suppose to
get back with me.
It would be nice to find out when these bills will come up
for a vote? I will try and monitor that
and will call his office again to voice my opinion.
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1. Internet gambling is a 24-hour a day activity.
It could be an after 5 pm, weekends only activity if they passed laws for it.
2. Which oftentimes undercuts a player's perception
of the value of cash leading to addiction, severe debt, and illegal activity.
It is rather hard to go into debt if you are playing $0.10-$0.20 limit holdem. Virtually everyone I know who is broke is from buying houses and cars and investing in the stock market where CEOs, pay themselves hugh salaries with backdated options diluting the small shareholders stock value. Why don't you eliminate the stock option?
3. Because age
verification is difficult to measure online, Internet gambling creates a major risk for minors who may
not understand the seriousness behind the transfer of electronic funds.
Thus minors should be banned from credit cards, atms, and even going to the store since they all involve transfer of electronic funds.
4. Internet gambling
is more than a social problem; it is a national security concern as well. According to the Department
of Justice, Internet gambling not only damages communities, but also is used to launder money.
In country, give $10000 to terrorist in cash. Go to casino, claim you lost it playing video slots. Thus all casinos should be banned. Out of country, fly to Cabo San Lucas. Buy a house thats worth $100K for $200K. The entire global stock market could be used to Launder money, and it would be easier. Especially since like 10% of the market is owned by tycoons in the middle east.
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everything you listed has nothing to do with why poker was banned on the internet in the US Kasilof. The 1 and only reason it was banned is because of the international transfer of funds. 1 terrorist in New York city goes heads up in a $2-4 no-limit internet poker room with his buddy in afghanistan and transfers 100 grand over in a 30 minute session. Any transfer of money over 10000 dollars inside or outside of the US automatically goes to homeland security along with your drivers license information so they can record how much you send-how often-and to whom it is being sent.
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 thehairlip: | |
everything you listed has nothing to do with why poker was banned on the internet in the US Kasilof. The 1 and only reason it was banned is because of the international transfer of funds. 1 terrorist in New York city goes heads up in a $2-4 no-limit internet poker room with his buddy in afghanistan and transfers 100 grand over in a 30 minute session. Any transfer of money over 10000 dollars inside or outside of the US automatically goes to homeland security along with your drivers license information so they can record how much you send-how often-and to whom it is being sent.
Poker was not banned in the U.S. And, there are no proven instances of money laundering or terrorist financing. The DoJ admitted this at a House hearing on this earlier this year.
So, how do you figure that was the "1 and only reason" for UIGEA? The people who pushed for UIGEA spent 90% of their time talking about morality, children trying to play, and people with compulsive behaviors.
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The stock market is 10000x bigger and these same funds can be transferred easier and more transparent via the stock market and corporate transactions. Or the stock market-employee-corporation complex. I am not going to tell terrorists how to do it on this board.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ter·ror·ism
–noun | 1. | the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes. |
| 2. | the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization. |
| 3. | a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government. |
Looks like the terrorist won right? This is just one of 50 million ways to launder money. Why just pick on this one? Whos to say I won't be sitting at the same table corrupting their plan and taking all their money?
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typical political doubletalk crapola! i smell a jerry fallwell campaign contribution. he like all other congressmen are at the mercy of the special interests be it the right wing christian mafia or the loony left. they are all slaves. all of them. and i just looooove how he ended his letter of reply....."i work for you" makes me wanna puke!
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when people make money in the stock market there is a paper trail moron. Many countries dont even tax gambling earnings ie...canada so the only records of habib's big score is habib and the poker site in which he won it. My congressman wrote a reply to the letter that I had sent him and all it talks about is terrorism and the international transfer of funds. This is why it will more than likely never be made legal. Literally every country would all have to be on the same page monitoring the large transactions of funds changing hands internationally, everyday.
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| thehairlip: | |
when people make money in the stock market there is a paper trail moron. Many countries dont even tax gambling earnings ie...canada so the only records of habib's big score is habib and the poker site in which he won it. My congressman wrote a reply to the letter that I had sent him and all it talks about is terrorism and the international transfer of funds. This is why it will more than likely never be made legal. Literally every country would all have to be on the same page monitoring the large transactions of funds changing hands internationally, everyday.
Sorry, but it's much more likely that your Congressman decided to oppose this, then sought reasons to justify his decision.
As your your assertions that this could be used to transfer illicit funds, then why hasn't this happened already? And, if it were, it seems we'd be far better off with a regulated system than what we have today.
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"when people make money in the stock market there is a paper trail moron."
Have you ever heard being paid under the table. A Saudi oil man buys large stake in company X and demands they hire a certain sub-contractor friend to monitor the fire extinguishers. This guy gives $10,000 a month to a terrorist organization in cash.
One of hundres of ways to transfer of funds via businesses and the stock market with no paper trail.
Online poker would be much riskier since chip dumping can be detected and there would be a paper trail of all transactions.
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