Barney Frank to the Rescue
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Exciting progress was made today to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the US. Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee has said that legislation will be introduced next week to abolish America’s ban on online gambling, an act which was imposed during the Bush administration and has now been in place for three years.
Speaking at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington DC, Frank stated that the bill was being drafted this week. "We'll be introducing it next week and I plan to move on it".
Frank’s words may ease the mind of sceptics who have twice been frustrated by missed deadlines to which Frank had originally pledged to meet. He first promised that the bill would be before Congress by the end of March, and then later promised it would be before Congress by the end of April. But in his defence Frank added that his committee has been extremely busy recently, attempting to address more pressing matters concerning the reform of financial regulation in the wake of the credit crisis. Fair enough I suppose. Nobody is complaining about your lack of effort Barney!
The UIGEA was issued in November 2006, preventing payment from US citizens to internet gambling companies. As a result many European online gambling firms lost billions of Euros in value after the bill prohibited the transfer of funds between financial institutions and gambling sites.
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