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SEES BACKING Barney Frank yesterday said supporters of Internet gambling "have been mobilizing . . . This is a grass-roots thing." |
Frank to offer legislation allowing online gambling
WASHINGTON - Legislation to allow Internet gambling is scheduled to be introduced today by US Representative Barney Frank.
Similar legislation failed in the last Congress. Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has support for the bill from such companies as Youbet.com Inc., and Harrah's Entertainment Inc., in addition to the Poker Players Alliance, formed to overturn a 2006 ban on Internet poker.
Supporters "have been mobilizing," Frank said last week. "This is a grass-roots thing."
The legislation would allow licensed gambling operators to accept online wagers from people in the United States. The bill would revise the 2006 law, which made it a crime for banks to process financial transactions used to place illegal bets online.
Harrah's vice president Jan Jones said regulating and taxing online gambling might swell government coffers by $2 billion to $6 billion annually. "At a time where there is no money, that can be going to healthcare or S-CHIP," the children's insurance program, Jones said.
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