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Hearing on U.S. Regulation Goes Well for Online Gambling/Poker Interests

The battle to legalize and regulate online poker in the United States took center stage on Thursday, as the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee held a hearing on H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act.

While nothing truly substantive came out of the 90-minute hearing, pro-online poker interests seemed to be pleased with how the proceedings went down. John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, had this to say to pokernews.com:

“I think what this hearing did was lay a foundation of record for the issue. The proponents of Internet gambling did a good job. I really think we got the much stronger and compelling arguments. If that’s the best (the opposition) can bring to the table, I feel pretty good about it.”

The attendance for the committee, which has 71 members, was pretty low, but that’s not uncommon for committee hearings. The hearing dealt little with the nuts and bolts of H.R. 2267, but instead dealt with the issues of online poker and gambling in general.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who chairs the committee, said this early in the proceedings: “I continue to believe it’s a mistake for the Congress of the United States to tell adults what to do with their own money on a voluntary basis. Some adults will spend their money unwisely, but it’s not the business of the Federal Government to prevent them from doing it.”

The bill’s chief opponent on the committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) had this to say when the floor was turned over to him: “No amount of regulation can begin to protect against this particularly predatory and abusive intrusion into American homes and the harm it is causing our youth.”

Those two quotes seem to show where the battle lines will be drawn as the legislation is considered by the committee.

There were seven witnesses at the hearing, with only one of the witnesses speaking against the bill. Among the most interesting:

Professor Malcolm Sparrow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, reviewed a study done at Harvard on the possible regulation of online gambling in the U.S.:

“The establishment of a well-regulated industry under U.S. jurisdiction would offer far better protection against online gambling’s potential social harms than outright prohibition. Combining a thoughtful regulatory scheme with education, technology tools, and support appears to be the most effective means of handling the realities and risks of online gambling in the United States…In the end, consumers in the United States would be better protected than they are now.”

National Council on Problem Gambling Executive Director Keith Whyte, who sounds like an opponent on the surface, was also for regulation:

“The graphical and interactive structure of the internet provides an opportunity to create informed consumers with access to a variety of information designed to encourage safe choices and discourage unsafe behavior. The amount of online information and possible interventions are essentially unlimited.”

In the end, the hearing attempted to lay the groundwork to prove that not only is regulation of online gambling and poker feasible, but it is also the best option for the United States right now. We’ll see how successful that message is in the coming months.

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