Election Year Stunt: Congress Passes Watered Down Version of Anti-Gambling Bill

but, in reality, actually does nothing of the sort. As of now, it is unclear whether President Bush will sign the bill, or veto it, in part.
Supported by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the bill could not muster enough support among the 100 members of the Senate on its own. So Frist sneaked it as an amendment to a bill on port security, a hot topic, in this era of fears over terrorism and Osama bin Laden's minions entering the U.S. by hiding in ship containers.

The bill, House Resolution 4954, however, is a watered down version of the measure passed this summer by the House of Representatives. The bill makes it "illegal" for American banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites. The bill has no jurisdiction over transactions processed by Internet banks or foreign banks, however, leaving a loopwhole wide enough to drive a BMW 740 through. What's more, Internet casinos are under no obligation to report the online transactions as gambling debt to credit card companies and banks, and could classify them in credit card codes as ticket purchases or the like.

Religious Right

Liberal Democrats accused Republicans of pushing the bill to appease the "conservative base, particularly the religious right," before the elections.

"It's been over 10 years in the making," said Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican and a chief sponsor of the measure. "The enforcement provisions provided by this bill will go a long way to stop these illegal online operations. Negotiators from the Republican-led House and Senate reached a deal on the legislation Friday and attached it to unrelated legislation to bolster port security, which the Congress approved."

The final bill dropped earlier sections opposed by the gambling industry that would have clarified that a 1961 federal law banning interstate telephone betting also is said to cover an array of online gambling.

Companies like BETonSPORTS, Partygaming and 888 Holdings have lobbied Congress regarding the legislation, and acheived something of a victory by stopping Congress from defining, precisely, what Internet gambling is, or is not.
Presidential Aspirations

Frist, a Tennessee Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, recently appeared at a field hearing in Iowa--the state that holds the first presidential nominating contest for the 2008 election to promote his bill, making this a part of his presidential aspirations.

Even backers admit the bill is going to be difficult to enforce if President Bush signs it.  "The enforcement provision provided by this bill will go a long way to stop these illegal online operations," Kyl said late Friday evening
Kyl and Frist previously, wihtout success, tried to put the ban on a bill authorizing funding for the military. But the Pentagon objected, and said the Defense Department bill was "no place for the gambling measure."
The House passed a version of the Internet gambling bill in July, but the Senate has taken no action on  even remotely similar legislation.

"Congress has grappled with this issue for 10 years, and during that time we've watched this shadow industry explode," Frist said, in a statement to the media, obtained by OnlineCasinoCrawler.com. "The bottom line is simple: Internet gambling is illegal."
Banking groups have lobbied against the law, but supporters include the National Football League as well as conservative and antigambling groups.

The Internet gambling industry is headquartered almost entirely outside the U.S., though many of its customers live in the U.S.

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