New effort launched to ban Internet gambling

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 10:25 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., a long-time opponent of Internet gambling, on Thursday re-launched his effort to ban cyber casinos by introducing legislation aimed at updating a 40-year-old Wire Act.

That act banned using phone lines to place bets. Goodlatte's Combating Illegal Gambling Reform and Modernization Act clearly bans all forms of Internet gambling, including sports betting, he said.

Goodlatte's bill includes a provision that prohibits gambling businesses from accepting certain forms of payment including credit cards, checks and Internet money transfers. Goodlatte said courts have been divided about whether the old wire act applies to Internet wagers.

Internet gambling undermines families by offering gambling to children and allows terrorists and others to launder money, Goodlatte said.

"Gambling on the Internet has exploded into a lucrative business that sucks billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy each year and costs tens of thousands of jobs," Goodlatte said in a statement. "These illegal, off-shore gambling websites are unlicensed, untaxed and unregulated."

Goodlatte pushed an anti-Internet gambling bill last year but House lawmakers did not pass it. His new legislation is similar to a bill passed Wednesday by the House Financial Services Committee, which also would prohibit use of credit cards for online gambling. The two bills could be combined into one, committee chairman Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., supports the Goodlatte legislation. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., supported Goodlatte last year but her opinion about Internet gambling is "evolving" and she is still considering the new Goodlatte bill, spokesman Michael O'Donovan said.