Online Poker Supported at Washington, DC Hearing

The Democratic head of the House Judiciary Committee voiced frustration on Wednesday about what he said are disparities in the enforcement of U.S. Internet gambling laws.

Chairman John Conyers questioned "the selective nature" of Internet gambling enforcement and said a ban enacted by lawmakers last year could end up hurting U.S. relations overseas.

"Continuing with the same old failed policies for the sake of feel-good politics doesn't make sense," Conyers, of Michigan, said at a hearing on the issue.

Conyers did not signal whether he supports any changes to the current law. A bill introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, would roll back the ban on Internet gambling that was enacted by Congress last year.

However, Conyers and several other lawmakers on the committee pressed officials from the Justice Department and Treasury Department at the hearing to explain why they are cracking down on some forms of Internet gambling but not others.

As part of the crackdown, two founders of payments processor NETeller Plc were arrested in January. In May online gambling operator BETonSPORTS Plc, pleaded guilty to U.S. racketeering charges and agreed to cooperate in a case against the company's founder and other co-defendants.

The Justice Department interprets a decades-old U.S. law, known as the Wire Act, as banning all forms of gambling over the Internet, although the gambling industry has argued the law only bars sports betting.

At Wednesday's hearing, Conyers and other committee members questioned why the Justice Department had not sought to prosecute other forms of Internet gambling, such as online horse-racing.

(Article Source: Peter Kaplan, Reuters. Click Here for the Full Article)

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