Frank’s Bill to regulate online poker

The much talked about bill from Congressman Barney Frank has finally been put on paper and the details amde available to the general public.

Due to be put before the House of Representatives sometime this Summer, this Bill should effectively legalize the position of online poker in the U.S., if it gets passed, that is.

Called the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, this legislation should effectively overturn the much debated UIGEA of 2006, which went after online poker through restricting financial transactions to online poker sites.

As a measure of how quickly Congressman Frank thinks this bill will be enforced, he also plans to introduce a specific bill to curtail the effects of the UIGEA before the full implementation date which is set for the 1st December.

Should this new gambling bill be passed, it will take some time, as these things do, to be passed into law and put in effect.

And what will the effect be?

This bill, the IGRCP&EA, will regulate and license online poker operators, effectively allowing the US Government to tax the many billions of annual online poker revenue that is currently being spent online. A licensing process will allow the US to control which poker rooms get to operate in the US market, and, on a side note, makes clear the reason that Party Poker founding member Dikshit has been negotiating with the DOJ before now when others have chosen not to.

The proposed licensing procedure will be useful to dis-allow any poker room that has operated in the US market while the UIGEA was in effect, such as Poker Stars. We can only speculate at this time as to whether a room like Poker Stars would seek a license under the new law.

The ‘teeth’ of this bill, as to how it will block non-licensed operators fromt he US market, is not clear yet, but presumably will include financial measures and possibly IP blocking measures.

All in all, licensing and regulation were always going to be on the cards for the online poker industry. This is still a relatively young online business, but the ‘Wild West’ days are coming to an end, and, as with all legitimate businesses, regulation is the only way forward. Hopefully, in this case, the regulations will be practicable, equitable, and enforceable.