BUSH to Pass Law to PREVENT Internet GAMBLING
 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/1....nt5b8tr6.html


US President George W. Bush this week is expected to sign a bill making it harder to place bets on the Internet, a practice which already is illegal in the United States.

Bush was expected to act quickly after Congress approved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act making it illegal for financial institutions and credit card companies to process payments to settle Internet bets. It also created stiff penalties for online wagers.

Billions of dollars are wagered online each year and the United States is considered the biggest market.

"It is extraordinary how many American families have been touched by large losses from Internet gambling," said US Representative Jim Leach, the bill's main sponsor in the House, in a statement after its passage early Saturday.

The bill's chief Senate sponsor was conservative Republican Jon Kyl, who, like Leach, has said he believed Internet gambling was a moral threat. He has called online betting as the Internet version of crack cocaine.

"Gambling can be highly addictive, especially when its done over an unregulated environment such as the Internet" he said this year.

"If Congress had not acted, gamblers would soon be able to place bets not just from home computers, but from their cell phones while they drive home from work or their Blackberries as they wait in line at the movies," Leach said.

The US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board will jointly develop implementing rules for the new law, while financial institutions have nine months to incorporate its provision.

Leach cited research which showed that young people who tend to spend hours of leisure time on the Internet, are particularly vulnerable.

A 2005 survey by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found that 26 percent of male college students gamble in online card games at least once a month, while nearly 10 percent of all college students gambled online at some point last year.

"Never has it been so easy to lose so much money so quickly at such a young age. The casino is in effect brought to the home, office and college dorm.

"Children may play without verification, and betting with a credit card can undercut a players perception of the value of cash, which too easily leads to bankruptcy and crime," Leach said.

Experts said the vast majority of bettors are placing wagers on poker.

"Everyone loses if this industry continues its remarkable growth trends," Leach said.

Republicans tucked the measure into a bill aimed at enhancing port security, which passed early Saturday.

ouch! That sucks for me. :(

Mmmm... this is getting interesting and hotting up :)

... And heading straight on course for clashing with a World Trade Organization judgement already made last year and where Canada, Antigua, UK and a few other countries already won an action against the US govt for basically "restrictive trade practices" and where the WTO is now considering sanctions against the US.

God yes. Lets stop the internet gambeling and the porn, but that shooting that took place today, and the one last week is ok.

we dont need to try and figure out what happened, and how to stop that kind of stuff.

Internet gambling is going to become forbidden and it is right now recieving lots of free publicity in the main stream media which means it's going to become more popular than ever before.

"Gambling can be highly addictive, especially when its done over an unregulated environment such as the Internet" he said this year.

what a load of bullshit, they run casino's too.......fucking idiots

someone should pass a law against Bush...

:thumbsup

Chris it wasn't Bush. The congressmen put this through and the congressmen voted for it.
They really had no choice about voting for it, as it was stuck onto a port security bill that would've been surefire political death to vote against.
However, submitting the bill in the first place was just more frigging legislating morality... and THAT should be outlawed.
Tacking bills onto other bills should also be outlawed.

Blame it on the US based casino operators. They wanted to get rid of the offshore competition sucking off all their gambling customers.

You think congress or the prez just wakes up one day and says let's ban online gaming? It's all from lobbyists repping Vegas, AC, and other gaming interests who have been pushing hard for several years and donating money to the Republicans.

Yeah i just started a job working in shares, and some of these companies lost about about half their share points in about 6 hours.

and this on the day that Harrah's Entertainment, the world's biggest casino operator, has received a $15bn takeover offer from two private equity firms.

the guy who came up wiht this stupid bill probably lost some money on partypoker and is sore...

BINGO!

^lame joke

Its called pork and both parties do it, each bill should be it's own seperate vote with no non related attachments. but this never happen because the fatcats in Washington make too much $$$ of this type of legislation.
But what is their excuse for the behavior?
It would take up too much time for vote on each bill independantly, see a congressmans life is hard. They make 250k+ a year and only work 6 months out of the year. What do they do with the other 6 months out of the year they arent in session? FUNDRAISE!!

We need line them ALL up and shoot them so we can start over

bush just needs to add a tax for online gambling, only reason they do it cause the govt make any money off it.

what he said...

this is so fucked up, they just want to tax everyone...