House Committee Hearing for Anti-UIGEA Bill
The House Financial Services Committee has announced that it will hold a hearing for the bill HR 2267 on Wednesday July 21. The full name of HR 2267 is the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, and it is commonly referred to as the anti-UIGEA bill. This is because it aims to overturn the UIGEA and set up a comprehensive framework for licensed and regulated online gambling in the United States. This bill has been sponsored by Barney Frank, the Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts. Frank is also the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. In all, the bill has 69 co-sponsors.
The hearing will be a half day affair and will begin after lunch. The House Committee has not released a witness list so the exact agenda is unknown. However, it has been made clear that there will be no vote at the end of the hearing. The unofficial news is that another hearing for the bill will be scheduled in August and the mark up will take place at that hearing. The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in May 2009 and had its first hearing in December 2009. The slow progress of the bill has been attributed to the more important financial matters before the House Financial Services Committee.
The online gambling community is frustrated by the slow progress of the bill. iMEGA Chairman, Joe Brennan Junior, has given voice to this frustration. He said in response to the announcement of the hearing, “Hearings are nice; they keep the ball in the air. What’s needed are votes: committee votes, floor votes. The i-gaming lobby has been working too hard for too long. It deserves more than a hearing.”
