Hollywood Eyes Internet Gambling Legalization
Called the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, the bill was introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in April. Congressional hearings on the feasibility of the bill were held last month.
Seeking to reverse the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed last year, the new bill would allow credit card companies to process payments from online gaming sites.
Frank's bill would also set up a framework for the government to legalize, license, regulate and tax Internet gambling, experts said.
Frank calls last year's bill "one of the stupidest things I ever saw."
"I want to get it undone," Frank said. "If an adult in this country, with his or her own money, wants to engage in an activity that harms no one, how dare we prohibit it?"
Under the Frank bill, American companies for the first time will legally be able to set up Internet casinos, run them from the United States and accept U.S. customers.
According to MGM Mirage Senior Vice President Alan Feldman, the industry is raring to go. "We would have it up and running within a year. And I have to believe that just about everyone will get involved at some level. All the major players."
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Feldman said that firms like Sony, Apple, Universal, Columbia, Time Warner, in addition to the gambling brand names, are interested. Mirage, Monte Carlo, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Treasure Island. MGM Mirage previously operated an Internet casino from the Isle of Man in the British Isles, from 2001 to 2003."About 70% of the global online wagering market is from the U.S.," he said.
If the bill passes, MGM Mirage will operate its Internet casino from Nevada, Feldman said.
Last year, the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the Venetian casino in Las Vegas, as well as other entities, announced plans last year to open an Internet casino this year that would operate from the Channel Islands and service the United Kingdom only.
But now, with the potential new law, the company's attentions are turning toward the U.S. market.
An Internet casino run from the United States that Americans could patronize is definitely something the company would be interested in, should it become legal, according to Sands spokesman Ron Reese. "We see it as another opportunity," he said.
Free Internet sites, such as Triple Jack (www.triplejack.com), based in Coral Springs, Fla., which provides a forum for online poker, with cash and other prizes awarded to winners, are currently exempt from the ban. The site, in operation since 2005, makes money by carrying ads, and claims to have more than 100,000 registered players.
Last month's hearings before Frank's House Financial Services Committee examined how effective new technologies to regulate Internet gambling and prevent abuse by underage and problem gamblers could be.
After the hearings, Frank gave no timeline as to when he expects the full House to vote on the bill.
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