Lawmakers Ask for Delay of UIGEA Implementation
Posted on: October 5th, 2009 6:55 am | By: Jeremy Schrute
Thus far, Gambling Review has published roughly 7 million stories (or at least it seems that way) about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and Representative Barney Frank’s attempts to overturn it. Frank thus far has been less than successful. In 2008, Frank introduced a bill in the House that would have repealed UIGEA and was defeated, despite having a Democratic majority in the House. Once President Obama and the new Congress were sworn in back in January, Frank introduced a new bill to repeal UIGEA. The bill so far has 60 co-sponsors, though many are not confident that Frank will succeed his second time around. For various reasons, not the least of which is skyrocketing unemployment and an administration focused on passing healthcare reform, flooring of the bill has been delayed.
In the meantime, some representatives would like to stall. Though UIGEA was passed in 2006, regulations for the law weren’t passed until 2008 and the implementation of the law isn’t set until December 1, 2009. Who says Congress doesn’t get things done quickly? Now a group of representatives, led by Frank and Republican Peter King, have sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking for the implementation of UIGEA to be delayed. Their reason is that with the economy still in a deep recession, now is not a good time to place more burdens on the financial institutions.
It will be interesting to see if Bernake and Geithner listen to the request. After all, both have claimed time and again that the recession is over, despite all evidence to the contrary. Therefore, agreeing to delay the implementation of UIGEA on the basis that the recession, which they say is over, is putting too much of a burden on the financial industry would seem to be an admission that they are lying, or at least wrong, about the economy. For that reason, like the passage of Frank’s bill, I think this attempt will fail.
Tags: Barney Frank, Ben Bernake, gambling law, gambling legislation, online gambling, Peter King, President Obama, Timothy Geithner, UIGEA, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
