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Clarity struggles to come to USA online gaming laws
Two legislative steps have been taken towards clarifying what will and won't be illegal under the USA's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
The Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives passed a bill that may go forward to be debated and voted on by the full House this year, or may ‘die' and have to be reintroduced in a session of Congress next year.
The "Payment Systems Protection Act" calls for a prompt end to online sports betting transactions being processed, but would stop the development of any further regulations until legal and illegal internet gambling is formally defined. It also calls for the Treasury department to draw up and maintain a list of online gambling businesses that operate illegally, and only to block financial transactions of companies on that list.
Meanwhile, Senator Robert Menendez introduced the "Internet Skill Game Licensing and Control Act" to the Senate, which calls on the US Treasury Department to set up a licensing framework for games that use "simulated cards, dice, or tiles in which success is predominantly determined by the skill of the players." Poker, bridge and mahjong are listed as examples of such games, and the bill goes on to define permitted bets as wagers "made with respect to the outcome of an Internet skill game that is a nonhoused bank game." If this bill is not taken up by the Senate Banking Committee before the current session ends, it, too, will ‘die' and have to be reintroduced.
