Congresswoman Calls for Online Gambling Study

Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley introduced a bill that calls for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a yearlong study of Internet gambling to identify the "proper response" the US government should have to it.

The bill calls for the NAS to consider several items concerning online gambling, including:

• A review of existing Federal, State, tribal, local, and international laws governing various forms of wagering over the Internet, the effectiveness of such laws, and the extent to which such provisions of law conform or do not conform with each other.
• An assessment of the proliferation of Internet gambling, including an analysis of its availability and use within the United States.
• A determination of the impact of Internet gambling on minors and compulsive gamblers and the availability of regulatory and technological safeguards to prevent or mitigate these impacts.
• A determination of the extent to which terrorists and criminal enterprises are utilizing Internet gambling for fraud and money laundering purposes and the availability of regulatory and technological safeguards to prevent or mitigate these impacts.
• An assessment of the impact of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on the availability and use within the United States of Internet gambling, and on the adverse effects of Internet gambling.
• An assessment of recent technological innovations and the practices of other nations and international bodies that license and regulate Internet gambling, and the practicality of using similar systems to establish a legal framework in the United States.
  

Berkley has called for a study like this to be made for more than a year now. Her bill is one of three that were recently introduced to counter the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was passed in October 2006. State Representative Barney Frank recently introduced a law that would make Internet wagering legal (with many caveats) and Rep. Bob Wexler is working on a bill that would provide a carve-out to the UIGE Act for online poker.