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They Had the Wrong Focus
 

Continued strong opposition from Republican is largely to blame for the defeat of HR 5767 and the King Amendment in this week’s House Financial Services Committee meeting. HR 5767 had heavy backing from supporters of a U.S. online casino gambling industry, as well as many Democrats. But HR 5767 went beyond just addressing the internet gambling issue; coupled with the King Amendment, the bill would effective put a stop to the flawed, unenforceable, and controversial UIGEA. HR 5767 was presented by Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul, and although some had high hopes that the bill would pass, the online casino gambling industry will have to find another way to neutralize the UIGEA.

According to Frank and Paul, the bill and amendment should have gone above party lines because it was about more than just addressing foreign online casinos in the U.S. – the UIGEA is not an effective solution to the internet gambling debate and HR 5767 and the King Amendment were purely designed to stop the development of regulations for the flawed UIGEA. The bill and amendment would not have actually legalized online casino gambling in any way, it was merely looking more stop UIGEA regulations and then force the government to define and precisely clarify the difference between legal and illegal internet gambling.

But according to the mainstream media, anti-gambling arguments dominated the floor while HR 5767 and the King Amendment were under discussion. That is precisely what the bill’s supporters were pushing to avoid. Alfonse D’Amato, former Senator and the Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance summarized the outcome nicely, “Unfortunately, debate over the morality of gambling trumped debate on the fact that UIGEA is completely ineffective and unenforceable.”

Interestingly though, it was a close call on the voting – the King Amendment scored a tie-vote, which means that the bill was defeated according to Committee rules.