Internet gaming out of bill on terror

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- The House overwhelmingly passed a measure today expanding the government's power to cut money flows to terrorist networks -- without an earlier provision designed to cripple the burgeoning Internet casino industry.

The vote for the bill, which is supported by the White House, was 412-1. It was adopted under a special rule requiring limited debate and a two-thirds vote as opposed to the customary simple majority.

When passed out of the Financial Services Committee last week, the bill contained language stating that "no person engaged in the business of betting or wagering may knowingly accept, in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling," financial instruments such as checks, credit cards or electronic fund transfers. Rep. James Leach, R-Iowa, had called the provision critical to the battle against terrorism, saying Internet casinos presented "the greatest potential for money laundering that exists in the world."

But Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Rules Committee, did not agree. Other members of the House Republican leadership also opposed the Internet gambling provision, and a deal was struck between the leadership and the Financial Services Committee to remove the Internet gambling provision before the bill went to the House floor for a vote, a Dreier aide said.

"It's not that he (Dreier) supports gambling ... he opposes the slippery slope of regulating the Internet in that fashion," the aide said.

The anti-terrorism legislation is intended to fight money laundering around the world, thwart the financing of terrorism and protect the U.S. banking system from illicit money. It would give the treasury secretary authority to require special record-keeping and reporting rules for American banks and other financial institutions and would make it a crime to smuggle more than $10,000 over U.S. borders.

Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J., who wrote the smuggling provision, called the legislation "a significant step down the right track to cripple the terrorist network."

In the Senate, the anti-money-laundering measure is attached to the counterterrorism legislation sparked by the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The House and Senate both have passed versions of the popular anti-terrorism legislation. But the House version does not contain the money-laundering provisions, a separation that "could be the death warrant for strong anti-money-laundering legislation," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told reporters Tuesday.

There is potentially "a lot of mischief to be played" with stand-alone money-laundering legislation in negotiations for a compromise between House and Senate lawmakers, said Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

The deep-pocketed banking industry has been lobbying for changes in the legislation. The American Bankers Association, financial services giant Citigroup and investment banking firm J.P. Morgan Chase are among those that want Congress to leave some of the details about what banks can do up to the Treasury Department rather than spell out specifics in the law.

"This is not a moment for politics as usual to rear its ugly head in the Capitol," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. He underlined the political influence of Texas bankers.

Bipartisan legislation to fight money laundering died in Congress last year, partly because of heavy lobbying by Texas bankers, who contend they are overburdened with federal paperwork requirements because of the large volume of cash transactions made over the border with Mexico.