Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) will continue to keep online gambling legalization on the front-burner of his economic agenda.
On Tuesday morning Frank, who chairs the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, outlined said agenda for the first few months of the year. Re: the online gambling aspect of his agenda, Frank told G911's Jenny Woo:
"I think if we do this right we should make online gaming legal and subject it to a reasonable taxation like anything else," he said. "This does not conflict to our effort to stimulate the economy. This isn't bad for the economy."
If this actually gets pushed through, expect the floodgates to open. Sure, we'll see the likes of donk-laden sites like Party Poker re-enter the market, but expect the brick-and-mortar casinos, as well as some web entry points (AOL? Yahoo!) step in too. Good times for all.
Read more here.
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by Wicked Chops Entity on 11.11.2008 in
Poker News | 1 comment
Just when Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) was making headway in clarifying and carving out poker from the UIGEA, word has hit that the Bush administration plans to sneak finalization of the Act into law before it turns the lights off in the White House.
If pushed through, the UIGEA would come into effect on January 19, 2009.
From the PPA:
The current Administration is hastily finalizing a number of “midnight rules” before they leave office and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is on the list. See the 11/06 story in Dow Jones. Just like UIGEA was snuck into legislation in the dark of night in 2006, our opponents are again trying an 11th hour sneak job. We need you to help us expose and stop this reckless rulemaking.
Please call the U.S. Federal Reserve and tell them not to approve the UIGEA regulations — Board of Governors, 202-974-7008 or Public Affairs, 202-452-2955.
- Tell them: The federal agencies responsible for our nation’s economy should not be focused on Internet poker regulations.
- Finalization of the UIGEA rules will add additional burdens on our already crippled financial systems.
- Internet poker is a game of skill and form of recreation for millions of Americans; it should be exempted from the UIGEA.
- Please do not finalize the UIGEA regulations until their impact on our banking systems and average Americans has been fully studied.
If you care at all about playing online poker, take a minute to call the above numbers or take 15 seconds to go online and fill this form out and email this address.
Again, at a minimum, fill this form out and email this address.
MORE: Following the money, it’s once again the NFL that is behind getting the Act pushed through, with former NFL lobbyist and now Bush administration appointee Bill Wichterman running point.
(Read Barney Frank’s letter to the Federal Reserve and Treasury after the jump)
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Online Poker,
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UIGEA
We’re a week late getting to this but definitely worth writing noting that some traction is being made for an online poker carve-out from the UIGEA.
The House Financial Services Committee approved a change to Rep. Barney Frank‘s (D-Mass) bill by a 30-19 vote that would clarify for banks what types of payments they can accept from processors. While sports wagering would still be illegal, online poker may get that carve-out the PPA has been fighting for over the past two years since we got Frist’d.
Said Rep. Frank:
"I would like to not tell adults that they can’t put a bet down…But under this bill … at least the banks will know what is and what isn’t illegal. We’re asking Treasury to give them a list."
More surprisingly is some hard-core one-time detractors seem to be coming around. One of those is Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who said:
"A lot of people out there that play poker on the Internet – they may lose their money but they’re adults – and they went to their members of Congress."
Read the full article here and get a good editorial take here.
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Online Poker,
Poker News,
UIGEA
As promised, the last part of our Wicked Chops Poker Awards is below and ready to go. Read Part I here and Part II here.
Part III is brought to you by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (at right). Rosie, a Brit, is a Victoria’s Secret model billed as the next Kate Moss. Except she’s much hotter than Kate Moss and less of a junkie. At least less of one for now.
Best Online Poker Site for Talking Shit: Bodog. Not sure why, but if you’re a good shit-talker and like getting under people’s skin, Bodog is the place for you to rage. F***ing luckboxes.
Best Online Poker Site for All-In Fests: Full Tilt Poker. If we’re looking to get a Kate Moss-esque quick fix and don’t have a lot of time to waste, Full Tilt’s turbo SNG’s basically turn into push monkey all-in fests after the first level or two. Perfect little bump.
Best Online Poker Site if You Like Pictures of Children and Dogs: Poker Stars. We love Poker Stars. We don’t like other people’s kids or dogs. Somebody needs to conduct a study to determine the percentage of runners on Stars that use a baby/family/dog photo for their icon. We’re guessing at least 20%. Gotta be.
Best Poker Blogger Trip Reporter: Kid Dynamite. We keep saying it, but Kid Dynamite is the most under-rated poker blogger out there. And we’ll keep saying it until he becomes over-rated and hated. His trip reports are particularly good. Read his latest batch here, here and here.
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Keeley Hazell,
vanessa Rousso,
Vikki Blows
by Wicked Chops Entity on 3.6.2008 in
Poker News | 2 comments
Unlike our ice-fishing Nickelback-loving Eskimo neighbors to the north who are now considering UIGEA-like legislation, some U.S. American lawmakers may actually be coming to their senses.
Last week, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a woman, (D-Calif.), signed on as a co-sponsor to the legislation of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), a homosexual, who last year introduced a blanket repeal of UIGEA legislation.
Some in Congress are beginning to recognize the potential financial windfall of legalized online gaming. According to the Politico, House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) "introduced a new version of his legislation this week to legalize, regulate and tax some forms of Internet gambling."
So in a time when all of Canada feels like rubbing in our face the fact that their dollar is stronger than ours despite the fact that by almost every imaginable measure we’ve totally pwned them for 200 years, it looks like we got a leg up on you guys again.*
Read the full UIGEA article here.
* We actually love Canada and Canadians but they’re really fun to pick on cause they take it so personally. It’s kind of cute, actually.
UPDATE: Want a t-shirt with the above image on it, sure to put a smile on all your Canadian friends’ faces? Click here.
Tagged as:
Barney Frank,
UIGEA
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