House Financial Services Committee Passes ‘Payment Systems Protection Act’
Update: Video of today’s markup can be viewed here
By a vote of 30-19, the House Financial Services Committee passed a modified version of Chairman Barney Frank’s ‘Payment Systems Protection Act (HR 6870).’ This bill would essentially require the United States Treasury to make a list of what specifically would be considered “unlawful Internet gambling,” the key term used in Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that was unfortunately passed by a Republican majority in 2006.
With the definition of what constitutes as “unlawful Internet gambling” being left for debate, coupled with a prohibition of funding transfers to or from “Internet gambling” sites, credit card companies and U.S. citizens are often left in the dark wondering what “unlawful Internet gambling” actually means. Not wanting to get caught up in the mess that Congress has created, many credit card companies are playing it safe by banning direct transactions to websites like Bodog, Party Poker, etc.
Today, if an American wanted to participate in a harmless game of online poker, that person will have to go through a variety of steps just to get around the fact that his credit card company will not allow him to make a transaction with a variety of self-identified “online gaming” sites.
Instead, Americans have to first purchase an item as a substitute currency (phone card minutes, for example), then take those minutes to poker site, convert those minutes back into dollars, play their game, and if they win, wait for a check to come in the mail.
This process is obviously way more complicated than it should be and the only people that seem to benefit from this legislation are the always powerful members of the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family who have fought aggressively to ensure that the UIGEA was passed.
Very rarely will I say this, but I have to give Chairman Frank a great deal of credit for fighting this battle. In my opinion, the UIGEA is a piece of legislation that should have never been passed in the first place. But courtesy of a very Grasslean maneuver by Bill Frist, who inserted the bill in the dead of night just before recess packaging it as part of the SAFE Port Act, Congress now finds itself with an extremely important bill that nobody seems to understand (sound like Grassley and the Housing Bill?).
With this passing the Committee, I’m hopeful that it will make its way to the House floor expeditiously. However, Congress is aiming to head to recess in less than 10 days, which makes the likelihood of this bill being brought up for a vote very slim.
But this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.
Currently FreedomWorks is running a petition through a new site, NetFreedomForever.com, urging action to be taken on this important issue. It’s not going to be an easy fight, but with the help of some bloggers and grassroots activists, I think we can get this done.
Blogs currently covering this issue:
- The Poker Blog
- 18Outs.com
- Pokerati.com
- SomeSuchThing
- The Wysiblog
- Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty
- Second Life Herald
- OnlineRummy.org
- The Jay Walk
- Se Vitav Resnoc
- CasinMoz
- Hard Boiled Poker
- Crystal Clear Conservative
If your blog is currently covering this issue, email me (contact, top of page) and we’ll add your blog to the list!
