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WTO-Online Gambling: US dragging on enforcement of UIGEA

written June 1, 2007

The drafting of regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been delayed for months.

The U.S. Treasury Department is dragging its feet in writing regulations to accompany a law designed to stop the use of credit cards to pay for Internet gambling.

Senator Sam Brownback, R-Kan., went to visit with Treasure Secretary, Henry Paulson on Thursday to ask about the delay.

“Are they going to be committed to enforcing this law?" Brownback asked, "and putting the personnel in place that it needs as well?"

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed last year, but the Treasury Department has yet to draft the rules for enforcement.

Chad Hills, gambling analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said writing them up shouldn’t be too burdensome.

“We estimate that about five federal employees working on this could keep and maintain a list of Internet gambling operations,” he told Family News in Focus.

Illegal Internet gambling is a $12 billion-a-year industry, and Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council said the pressure to water down the restrictions via the Treasury Department is intense.

"The gambling forces seem to have some friends in those departments that might have been helping write some of those regulations," he said. “It’s almost setting up a fourth branch of government – a bureaucracy branch – that decides what laws they want to enforce and what laws they want to basically rewrite.”

If this sounds a but confusing, and it should, then that's obviously a good sign for those who enjoy online gambling.

The following is a letter that an Internet gambling enthusiast just sent to his Congressman and he urges anyone else who enjoys online gambling to use it.

"As a Republican constituent and voter in your district, I am writing to express my objection to the United States’ withdrawal from the gaming sector (Article 21) of the GATS agreement. This unprecedented withdrawal, made in response to our loss to Antigua in a dispute heard by the WTO over Internet gambling access, will have far-reaching ramifications for the U.S. While the federal government seems to feel there is some driving national interest in legislating the moral beliefs of a few on all Americans by preventing us from playing poker or betting sports online, the fact is that we need the WTO now more than ever. We have many trade disputes worldwide. We need access to markets and other trade controls. We need the WTO to deal effectively with China. Should we sacrifice this to satisfy the very few social conservatives who, despite the lack of even a single negative reference to gambling in the Bible, feel they have to tell OTHERS not to play poker or bet on Sports in their OWN homes on their OWN computers?

I think not.

Please ask President Bush to rescind this withdrawal from GATS. We made the commitment, so we should stick to it. The word of the U.S. should be our bond."

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--EOG