Online poker in the U.S. got a big boost Wednesday when a bill, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to regulate online sites in the U.S. was approved by a congressional committee. But keep in mind that it’s just one step in a long process before the bill can become law.

Barney Frank

Still, recent events concerning software problems at Cake Poker and growing worries about “hot seats” at popular online sites like Full Tilt Poker, have a lot of player’s yearning for some oversight from Uncle Sam. Online sites are usually based outside the U.S. and have little, if any, regulation.

The proposed bill is the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, which would replace the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in 2006. The earlier law pretty much outlawed Internet gaming in the U.S., but leaves it up to financial institutions — you know credit card companies — to block transactions. So far, it hasn’t worked very well.

The new bill was passed by The House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, but getting that vote required a lot of changes and amendments to the bill.

One of the amendments would exclude sites considered to be breaking current laws such as Full Tilt or PokerStars, from ever being granted business licenses in the future. There’s some debate, however, whether these two online poker giants would really be excluded.

Other amendments require online players to be at least 21 years of age and would prevent online gaming sites from advertising to minors or problem gamblers.

And then finally, gamblers couldn’t use credit cards to make bets, but could use debit cards.

The final amendments proposed the creation of a statistics database, and that all sites licensed by the US would be located and stay within the country.

The bill is also tied up with other legislation to tax online gambling, which also must be passed before the entire bill goes to The House. And remember, we have a Senate and president that will probably want to weigh in on the bill as well.

So while it is movement, don’t expect much change any time soon.

Bloomberg News has a nice rundown on the vote.

Tags: Poker headlines

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