Barney Frank's Attempt To Allow & Tax Online Gambling Moves Forward (Again)
from the with-caveats dept
Back in 2006, some politicians included a bill that effectively banned online gambling as a part of a law designed to protect our ports (don't ask what one has to do with the other). Pretty much since then, Rep. Barney Frank has been seeking to legalize online gambling (in order to tax it), and he just got a step closer to that as the House Finance Committee has passed a version of his bill. There were, not surprisingly, complaints against how this bill would "bring gambling into everyone's homes," but that ignores (of course) that it's already available in homes, and the feds have long admitted that they have no idea how to enforce the original law.Of course, this is not the first time that the House Finance Committee has approved such a bill, and in the past it went nowhere. So, there's still a half decent chance that this really means nothing much.
Still, there are some interesting provisions in the bill, as a few amendments were added, including banning the companies who have currently been letting Americans play poker online from getting approved for a license. Yes, all of those online gambling sites who are still offering services and hoping this bill passes... may get shut out by it. Of course, they might have a pretty strong legal case that this is not legal, seeing as some courts have suggested that poker is not technically gambling. Another amendment would bar those who are behind in child support payments from visiting online gambling sites, though I don't see how they enforce that one.
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Filed Under: barney frank, online gambling
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Re:
He is the same person who believes "we can tax enough of the rich people"
I wish I was kidding but Source
Just to show how scary Barney Frank is... Meltdown.
And it's a problem we have today...
The same politicians that have helped to cause our downfall are still in their positions!
We, the US, really need to work on our incumbency rate.
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You say that like it's a bad thing.
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This guy wants to tax everyone and raise his own pay.
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How true and I for one am glad they don't.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/incometaxandtheirs/a/whopaysmost.htm
http://www.cato-at-l iberty.org/2007/10/09/tax-shares-for-rich-and-poor/
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/sho w/250.html
http://taxesandgrowth.ncpa.org/news/do-the-rich-and-businesses-pay-their-fair-share
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I believe that should be who have been offering services
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Q: What Kind Of Game Is It Where Any Strategy That Helps You Win Is Automatically Classified As “Cheating”?
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Re: Cheating
> your odds, the "house" gets it made illegal to do it
Not true. Card-counting has been specifically ruled not to be cheating, per the Nevada Supreme Court. Cheating at a casino is a crime and if caught doing it, you can go to prison. When the court ruled card-counting is not cheating, that meant the only thing the casino can do is kick you off their property for doing it. They can't call the police, have you arrested/charged, etc.
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Most CC companies, paypal, western union and money gram all refuse to allow money to be sent to these companies. So if the US keeps this same pressure on them then the customers will go where it's the easiest.
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Meaning, illegal and unregulated offshore companies (or equally illegal domestic outfits), of course...
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I think that most gaming companies would love to target the large US market free from the threat of arrest and imprisonment for doing something completely above board.
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Child Support restriction
It's not so much about how they would enforce the rule on not letting those with back child support play on these sites, but rather what they would be able to do with them.
Currently they are pretty rough on people with back child support, do things like take their drivers license and any professional licenses away, even their fishing licemse. Which is all somehow supposed to encourage them to pay. I'm not sure how taking a Drs licence to practice his profession away actually can help him pay, or how taking a truckers license to drive a truck away helps, but thats just some of the things they do.
They can also put guys in jail for not paying. Currently that sentence cannot exceed a year because the tecnical charge is contempt of court. By adding the charge of gambling while behind on child support they can simply add to the time in jail and futher delay the payments for child support. OH what sense does it make to also put someone in jail for a year for not paying, AND also keep racking up the support amounts that they are behind???
Anyway, as I said, it's not about preventing them from playing online, just about the sentence that can be handed down.
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Re: Child Support restriction
Michial Thompson, back to his old ways.
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Good ol' Barney
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Like that is going to work in anyway shape or form.
Start a new company and website doing the same thing, then purchase the URL of the old company.
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You have it backwards. The way it's supposed to work is that there has to be a really compelling reason to disallow something, otherwise it's allowed. In this case, the ban is to protect the profits of casinos and dog and horse tracks. So the reason to allow online gambling is that the law banning it has no legitimate purpose.
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So what happens is that people play online to get around the hard ban.
Like I said, it becomes an entirely different ball game once people get religion involved with gambling.
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Re: Gambling
> then we can tax it.
No, the reason we should allow gambling is because it's none of the government's business what I spend my money on.
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Legalizing gambling
Sounds like the amendment to discriminate against the present providers would just force a name change?
I think anything we have should be legalized and taxed (well, I have some reservations about child porn, but....).
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We should continue ignoring it and refusing to accept the millions that we would get!
True right-wing style!
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