US Senators Support Online Gambling Cause

Add two more United State Senators to the list of public figures against current US anti-gambling laws. Senators John Sununu and Pete Domenici of New Hampshire are jumping on board the pro-online gambling train, led perhaps by Congressman Barney Frank who in 2007 introduced his Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act.

In a letter addressed to the Secretary of the US Treasury Henry Paulson and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, Sununu and Domenici express concern that the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act are too tough on banks who are supposed to be enforcing the ban on online gambling.

However, what they claim is in fact happening is that rather than making clear what behaviors are and are not acceptable, the UIGEA has only created ambiguity in terms of what types of transactions should be blocked. Inevitably, the banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions will not uniformly enforce the Act's regulations, leading to confusion and problems.

The consequences of this ambiguity include the possibility that nervous banks will simply block every transaction which resembles gambling whether or not it is legal. The Senators urge Paulson and Bernanke to more clearly delineate the rules into what federal law has clearly dictated and what it has not.

Only time will tell what happens next but this is clearly an issue that will continue to receive much attention in the future.