Internet gaming bill gaining momentum

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A bill that would ban Internet gambling by regulating payment methods gained a little more steam in Congress Tuesday.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security approved the legislation on a voice vote with no amendments and sent it to the full committee.

The action came nearly two months after the House Financial Services Committee approved the bill authored by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa. The bill is within the jurisdiction of both panels, so lawmakers on both committees are getting a crack at the legislation.

The bill is just one of a number of pieces of legislation that Congress has drafted in a long and complex effort to prohibit Internet gambling, which has grown in six years from a $445 million industry into a $4.2 billion colossus, said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., a long-time cyber-casino foe. There are now about 1,800 Internet gambling sites, many operating off-shore outside the reach of the U.S. government.

"Virtual casinos have been labeled the crack cocaine of gambling," Goodlatte said.

The Leach bill bans the use of credit cards, checks and wire transfers for Internet gambling. The bill helps make it "crystal clear" that Internet gambling is illegal, Goodlatte said. The Justice Department says Internet gambling is already technically illegal under the 1961 Wire Communications Act, but it is almost never enforced.

The bill passed with little discussion, although an exasperated Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said she was weary of the committee spending so much time trying to curb Internet vice-peddling, including tobacco and alcohol promotion and gambling. "We should spend our time in a much more substantive way than this," she said.

In other action, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Vir., said he intended to add an amendment in a later hearing that would more clearly make it illegal to gamble on the Internet, instead of just banning payment methods.

"If you are going to prohibit Internet gambling, you should prohibit Internet gambling," he said.

The bill would allow states to make Internet gambling legal if it could be kept within the state, although critics say technologies that identify the state location of users have not been effectively developed. Gaming companies in Nevada want to offer cyber-casinos.

Another bill that would launch a study of the feasibility of licensing and regulating Internet gambling, introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and supported by Nevada lawmakers, is still pending in Congress.