IGC in the News

From Bureau of National Affairs, 11/4/99:

House Judiciary Subcommittee Reports Bill to Ban Online Gaming on 5-3 Vote

A bill that would ban most forms of online gambling was forwarded Nov. 3 to the Judiciary Committee by its Subcommittee on Crime.

The 5-3 vote to report the bill favorably to the full committee was split along party lines, with subcommittee Democrats expressing concern that the bill failed to go far enough to ban gambling from the Internet.

H.R. 3125, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1999, introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) Oct. 21, would impose criminal penalties on people placing or collecting bets via the Internet who are "engaged in a gambling business."

The bill would permit exceptions for certain gaming activities, such as state-sponsored games, legal pari-mutuel betting, and closed-loop subscriber-based services. Also, through its wording, the bill would exempt individual bettors not associated with a gaming business from criminal penalties specified by it.

Democratic Opposition

The Democrats on the subcommittee, led by their ranking member, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), questioned why some online betting would still be permitted under the bill and suggested that the ban should not be limited to gambling businesses.

"If you are serious about prohibiting gambling on the Internet, you have to go after the individual," Scott told reporters after the markup. Scott said current federal law may accomplish that, through the Wire Act of 1961, 18 U.S.C. § 1081, depending upon how the courts are willing to interpret it within the context of the Internet.

Scott, who offered an unsuccessful amendment that would have held individual bettors accountable as well, said the bill would do nothing to prevent Internet gaming operations from setting up in foreign countries.

"How do you enforce it against nations we don't have meaningful relations with?" Scott asked.

Subcommittee Chairman Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) unsuccessfully urged Scott to drop his opposition to the bill for the time being and to focus his efforts on changing the bill once it arrives in the full committee.

McCollum, along with Goodlatte, was a chief backer of legislation in the last Congress to ban Internet gambling, but the bill never arrived on the House floor for a vote.

Meanwhile, a similar bill in the Senate, S. 692, sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, was placed on the calendar, and awaits action by the full Senate. So far, S. 692 has 23 co-sponsors. Last year, a Kyl-sponsored Internet gambling ban passed by vote of 90-10, but the House failed to act on the similar bill.