The House of Representatives today voted 317 to 93 for a bill that tries
to prohibit offshore Net-gambling. It targets Internet service providers
and financial intermediaries, namely banks and credit card companies
that process payments to offshore Web sites:
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6092852.html
Here's the vote total, which is largely (though not completely)
partisan, with the Republicans supporting the so-called Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll363.xml
Here's the text of the bill, which says ISPs can be forced to block
access to offshore gambling sites after being slapped with a court order:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04411:
There are two interesting asides here.
First, how will this work on a technical level? The Federal Reserve is
supposed to come up with regulations applying to certain "designated
payment systems" (including not just credit cards and Paypal but also
eGold and FirePay). Those DPSs must find ways to block payments
representing a "restricted transaction," which should be entertaining to
try to identify.
Second, the bill contains carve-outs for, say, horseracing. That's
according to no less an authority than the National Thoroughbred Racing
Association:
http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=pac&style=red&id=18064
But a vote on an amendment (admittedly, a poison pill one) to cover
*all* forms of Internet gambling failed:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll361.xml
-Declan
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
