Internet gambling rules delayed
WASHINGTON -The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are giving US financial institutions an additional six months to comply with regulations designed to ban Internet gambling.
The two agencies said yesterday that the new rules, which were to take effect on Dec. 1, would be delayed until June 1 of next year.
A key Democratic opponent of the ban on online gambling, House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, praised the action.
The delayed rules would curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks, or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers.
The financial industry complained that the new rules would be difficult to enforce because they did not offer a clear definition of what constitutes Internet gambling.
