Casino ATMs, Internet gambling debated in House

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, June 20, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The House today considered one of several bills aimed at outlawing Internet gambling.

The bill discussed in the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services Committee would ban online gamblers from placing bets with credit or debit cards, effectively making it impossible to wager.

The bill is considered a supplemental bill to other pieces of legislation passed by the full Senate and the House Judiciary Committee that ban most forms of Internet gambling outright. That bill awaits a full House vote.

Yet another bill, pushed by gambling foe and banking committee member Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., would ban casinos from installing automated teller machines and credit card access machines on casino floors. Nevada officials oppose that.

LaFalce said that his bill would make it more difficult for gamblers to hastily withdraw money. He said that legislation is related to the bill under consideration today.

"It would at least make them leave the table and go out into the lobby," LaFalce said.

An official with the Treasury Department said the agency agreed with the goal of LaFalce's bill.

"Sitting at a gambling table is a uniquely poor place to decide whether to borrow money," said Gregory Baer, the department's assistant secretary for financial institutions.

Congress has had a difficult time grappling with the issue of Internet gambling, in part because many of the estimated 850 online betting sites are located outside the United States. It is already illegal to place bets using telephone lines, which often carry Internet connections. But that law is rarely enforced.

Nevada's delegation and casino operators generally support a ban on Internet gambling, in part because it is unregulated, in part because it offers some threat of competition to "brick and mortar" casinos.

Scheduled to testify in favor of the bill that would ban credit card use in Internet gambling were officials with the National Association of Attorneys General, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. That commission released its findings last year, including a recommendation to ban Internet gambling.

"But do Internet users really want to do business in an environment that is literally outside the law?" asked gambling study commission member Richard Leone.

Daniel Nestel, a senior assistant director for the NCAA, was scheduled to appear today and urge the House committee to approve legislation that NCAA officials believe will help them in their effort to curb student gambling.

"They can surf the web in their school library, in a computer lab or in the privacy of their dorm room," Nestel said. "The emergence of Internet gambling now enables students to wager behind closed doors, in virtual anonymity."

The committee was not scheduled to vote on the issue today.