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US Internet Betting Still Illegal

The markup process on Barney Frank’s online casino gambling bill, HR 2267 has been completed in the House Financial Services Committee phase and there were several key amendments that were added to the bill before the passage was acceptable to all of the voting parties. Representative Peter King was actually incredibly active in the amendment process and he represented the interests of the NFL in the markup phase by supporting their agenda in ensuring that though online casinos will soon be legalized in the market that the sports betting industry will still remain outside of the internet industry. This is actually not a major shift in the planned policy – although the focus has long been on the chance gambling and poker legalization, there was some language in place noting that sports betting legalization was not a planned part of new regulations that would fully overhaul the current US system to create more safeguards.

The NFL though has long objected to the legalization of online casinos if it included the sports betting industry and has lobbied hard against the internet gambling industry for this very reason. Interesting was the fact that the NFL’s interests and lobbying dollars had clear representation at the markup phase of debating the online casino bill and yet some politicians were crass in their accusations that pro-gambling politicians had been swayed by lobbying dollars from the internet gambling industry itself. Clearly the NFL though was there because of extensive lobbying funds that have been earmarked to ensure that legalized sports betting does not pass as a part of HR 2267.

The special interest groups have long played a part in the legislation process in the US as a result of lobbying dollars in place that are tossed around by the major industries in order to sway and convince members of Congress to vote a certain way. The sports betting amendments were not needed in the current legislation but were added because they create one less out-spoken obstacle to the passage of HR 2267 and legalized online casino gambling.