Banks Balking at Bill to Ban Betting

Submitted on Thu, 2006-09-14 10:48In what appears to be good news for the online gaming industry, the odds of the House of Representatives' online gambling bill passing in the Senate this year are looking poor.

The House passed their anti-online gaming bill this past July which would properly interpret the 1961 Wire Act preventing companies from accepting bets over the Internet; prohibit credit-card companies from processing deposits to Internet gambling websites, and forbid banks to process electronic money transfers or e-checks to these websites.

The banking industry strongly opposes the legislation, claiming the prohibition would be impossible to enforce, and besides, there already exist numerous alternative ways for bettors to transact money online.

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