Word broke on Friday across the online poker world that United States Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) introduced HR 6663, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification and Implementation Act of 2008. As the name implies, its purpose is to diagnose exactly what should be deemed legal and illegal under the UIGEA. Backed by three high-powered Congressmen as co-sponsors, all Democrats, HR 6663 represents the need for clarification to the law that was ushered through Congress and attached to the SAFE Port Act back in 2006. With Congress currently in an August recess, discussion on HR 6663 will not occur in the House Judiciary Committee until September at the earliest.
The bill describes one of the major ambiguities of the UIGEA, whether online poker and games like online blackjack are legal within the United States: “Federal Internet gambling prosecutions have involved sports betting, creating a lack of authoritative court decisions on the applicability of other federal criminal statutes to Internet poker and casino-style gambling.” HR 6663 seeks to take aim at sports betting outlets like Bet On Sports and Bodog, which has both an online poker room and sports book. Bodog has recently also come under fire from the U.S. Government, which seized $24 million of its assets in American banks.
HR 6663 also gives a reprieve for operators like Party Poker that offered online poker to U.S. customers before the UIGEA was passed in late 2006, but then exited the market. Its parent company, Party Gaming, is traded on the London Stock Exchange. Party Poker pulled out of the U.S. market just after the UIGEA was passed. Passage of HR 6663 would mean “criminal statutes applicable to gambling do not apply to any person who offered Internet gambling services that did not include sports betting prior to October 13, 2006, and who ceased offering Internet gambling services to persons in the United States upon passage of the UIGEA.” Companies like Party Poker, which did not offer a sports book, would fall under this description. It could pave the way for its executives, which had been rumored to be seeking a deal with the U.S. to be allowed on the country’s soil, to be able to travel freely. Companies like Bodog, which offer a poker room and sports book, would not meet this criteria.
What should be appealing to online poker rooms is that the bill includes a provision outlining what the U.S. Attorney General should focus on when enforcing the UIGEA: The “Attorney General should focus any prosecutorial efforts on those persons who (A) offer Internet sports betting in the United States; or (B) process payments for illegal Internet sports betting in the United States.” This focus on sports betting reinforces the provisions of other laws such as the Wire Act of 1961, which have been interpreted to mean that sports betting is prohibited on the internet in the U.S.
Sessions, a Republican, represents the 32nd District of Texas, which includes parts of Irving and Dallas. He is a six-term Representative and is a member of the House Rules Committee. HR 6663 has three original co-sponsors:
1. Marion Berry, a Democrat who represents the First District of Arkansas, which includes Jonesboro. He’s been in the House since 1997.
2. Jesse Jackson, Jr., a Democrat who represents the Second District of Illinois, which includes many of Chicago’s southern suburbs. He’s been in the House since 1995.
3. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts’ 10th District, which includes parts of Nantucket and Plymouth counties. He’s been in the House since 1997.
Poker News Daily will have all the latest news about HR 6663 as it unfolds. Congress returns from its August recess after Labor Day.
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