The following is a brief synopsis of the discussion over internet gambling held by Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee.

Please excuse any typos as we are reporting on this issue through a live broadcast. The breakdown is what each person talked about and emphasized. For updates and the Q&A sessions please read our US poker updates section.

Smith - Opponent 

Talks about same old stuff, money laundering, underage gambling problems and addictions.  Said there was a 4 percent decrease (from 5% to 1%) of college gamblers because of the UIGEA.

Berkley – Pro Gambling 

Selective enforcement and confusing laws.  She attacked horseracing being illegal.  Said the horseracing had the biggest boom ever because of the UIGEA.  10 million people are still wagering online even with the ban.  Says she would challenge Smith’s stats on college percentage decrease.  

Focuses on WTO issue and how dangerous it was for us to “Take our ball and go home” or how we backed out of our commitments.

Says there is technology available to stop problems that may arise.  There are 28 million people that want to gamble online.

Goodlatte – Opponent 

Ills of online gambling are much higher on the internet other than brick and mortar casinos.  Goes into a suicide, debt and robbery example of people who’ve had gambling problems.  Gambling problems have declined from 20.4% in 2006 to 5.9% in 2007 according to his stats.  Says the loss of Neteller in the US was the biggest reason for this decrease.  

Wants new law to take affect and does not agree with a study of internet gambling.  Berkley responds that we should have had a study before the UIGEA was passed.

Katherine Hannaway - US Attorney Missouri 

Department believes online gambling should remain illegal because of fraud, money laundering, and organized crime.

Prosecution continues and still has ongoing investigations.  Cites Neteller case and co-founders pleading guilty.  Also cites Betonsports case and a few others.

She was basically stunned and couldn't answer when Professor Wieler asked what would happen if China started withdrawing committments and prosecuting Americans if they decided to withdraw WTO committments.  Wants further specification of specific forms of gambling even though they consider all gambling illegal.

US Treasury – Missed Name 

Reasonably and safely were emphasized in the design to stop gambling transactions.  No payment system is exempt completely from the regulations.  Commenting period still going forth…Expects to have a final rule that strictly adheres to the new law.  Said going through all the comments would take a long time and could not give a definitive time on when the regulations would take affect.

Professor Wieler – Discusses WTO Issues 

The US is the prominent member of the WTO.  Once a country gives a commitment to the WTO it must continue with the commitment which the USA did not do with regards to internet gambling.  The US was discriminating against other countries and “protectionism” for remote gambling special interests in the US .

Says the indictments the US continues with and the withdrawl of their commitment is very damaging to the US reputation.  Sets a bad example as other countries will lead by example in withdrawl of commitments.

Annie Duke – Professional Poker Player 

Says it’s not the governments responsibility or right to ban everything they feel is addicting and the new law is intrusive on Americans rights.  The government made a crime but didn’t specify what the crime was.  She spoke very well in the Q&A section regarding software to stop gambling addiction and federal/state sportswagering issues.

Tom McClusky – Family Research Council - Opponent 

Says adopting of legalization would lead to corruption.  Cites all the agencies that supported the ban (didn’t mention anything about Americans not supporting it).  Annual cost of pathological gambling was 5 billion.  Goes into more details about how pathological gambling is a problem and how it leads to debt, crimes, divorces etc.  The internet will increase these problems.  Says internet sites don’t verify age.

Michael Calopy (Aristotle) Age Verification Software 

Screening online is far more affective than screening at a convenience store.  It is also very affordable and is already being done.  Mentioned Self Exclusion List (SEL) which would address gambling addiction problems online.  Hannaway of the US Attorney was most interested in the age verification software.  Annie Duke also comments on “Snare” which would address some addiction problems.


Posted by Roger