“I have been continuously committed to putting an end to gambling on the internet,” said Goodlatte. “For too long our children have been placed in harm’s way as online gambling has been permitted to flourish into a $12 billion industry.”
The Act aims to clarify existing federal law, which the Congressmen say is unclear on whether using the internet to operate a gambling business is illegal.
According to Goodlatte, the closest useful statute is the Wire Act, which prohibits gambling over telephone wires. But as this was written long before the invention of the World Wide Web, it needs updating.
The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act therefore amends the Wire Act to make it clear that the prohibitions include internet gambling and the use of other new technologies and ups the maximum penalty for a breach from two to five years in prison.
The Act allows states to continue to regulate gambling within their borders with tight controls to be sure that it does not extend beyond their borders or to minors. It also prohibits a gambling business from accepting certain forms of payment, including credit cards, cheques, wire and internet transfers, in illegal gambling transactions.
The legislation will allow federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officials to seek injunctions to prevent and restrain violations of the Act. Goodlatte suggests that law enforcement could use such injunctions to get assistance from ISPs to remove or disable access to links to online gambling sites that violate the Act.
The Act has now been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
It is the third time that the Congressmen have introduced such legislation. On both previous occasions they have failed to gain the support needed to pass the Act.
The Act was re-introduced just as tiny Antigua and Barbuda raised concerns that the US has done nothing to comply with a World Trade Organisation ruling that its existing gambling laws breached WTO regulations by discriminating against overseas website operators.
The US has until 3rd April to comply with the WTO ruling, or face trade sanctions from the tiny island state. The Act proposed by Congressmen Goodlatte and Boucher appears to ignore that ruling.