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HR2267 Passes Committee 41-22-1

By Paul Ellis - July 28th, 2010

FrankJuly 28th, 2010 may go down as the day the second Poker Boom officially was kicked off. Not perhaps in the same way as when an accountant named Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event, but it will definitely rank among them. After seven months, HR 2267 faced a critical vote with the House Finance Committee and passed by a 41 to 22 to 1 margin. The HR 2267 bill, which was pushed hard by Rep. Barney Frank and the Poker Players Alliance has crossed a major hurdle on its way to becoming law despite extreme opposition by chairman Rep. Spencer Bacchus.

Rep. Bacchus has publicly argued that the legislation proposed would bring casino gambling into every house in the U.S. and urged his colleagues to not support the bill, even calling for Rep. Frank to withdraw the legislation. Despite his vehement opposition of the legislation, HR 2267 went through to the board and passed by a wide margin. While HR 2267 isn’t 100% out of the woods, it did take a major step towards regulating the Online Gambling industry in the U.S. It will now be sent to the House of Representatives, where should it pass in a majority vote, it will be passed in to the Senate for another vote, before being signed into law by the President.

Several amendments were made to HR 2267 with each amendment handled individually and voted upon by the representatives in attendance.

The first amendment was brought by Congressman Brad Sherman of California. Online sites that have intentionally broken internet gaming laws cannot get a license to conduct business in the United States. This will affect larger online poker sites such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet who allowed players from the U.S. to play on their site after the UIGEA went into effect. This amendment passed.

The second amendment was brought by Congressman Peter King of New York, and prohibits sports betting, excluding horseracing. Basically the intent was to keep sports clean and away from anything that would undermine the integrity of the game. This amendment also passed.

The third amendment was brought by Congresswomen Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio, and indicated that the Secretary of the Treasury has the power to prohibit unsolicited emails and advertisements targeted to minors and problem gamblers. This amendment also passed.

The fourth amendment was brought by Congressmen Spencer Bachus of Alabama, and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. This amendment will forbid offshore sites that have illegally done business in the US, along with people who have been employed by sites that have conducted business illegally in the US, from getting a license. The intent by Bachus was to include everyone associated with illegally run online gambling sites in a ban. This amendment was contested vigorously by Rep. Frank who said that “a janitor or a restaurant worker employed inside of a brick or mortar casino would not be held responsible for the mishandlings of upper management.” The contention was that the same should hold true for an online company. Rep. Bachus withdrew the bill, then reintroduced it with language that stipulated a ban for those who “knew” they were working at an illegally-run internet site be banned from obtaining a license. The amendment was later voted on by roll-call.

The 5th amendment was from Congressman Joe Bacca from California, and allowed Indian Tribes to participate in Internet gambling. Rep. Frank quickly shot down the amendment as it wasn’t relevant to the subject.

The 6th amendment was again from Congressman Bacca, to allow states and tribes to opt-in to Internet gambling. Rep. Frank opposed this, and stated that it should be the person’s choice to gamble online, and not relegated to the state that they reside. This amendment was denied by voice vote, but later voted on by roll-call.

The 7th amendment was from Congressman John Campbell of California, and provided several criteria. 1) All facilities of licensees that operate and/or accept wagers must be located in the U.S. 2.) States and tribes must have parallel authority. 3) Bettors must be at least 21 years of age. 4) Age and residence of the bettor must be verified. 5) Odds of winning at each game must be posted online. 6) The identities of legal and illegal gambling sites must be verified by the treasury in order for banks to prohibit certain financial transactions. 7) Owners must meet licensing requirements. 8) Sites must provide loss limits for each bettor. This amendment was passed.
The 8th amendment was brought by Congressman Sherman again, and provides that States are given one full legislative session to opt out, as opposed to the original 90 day period. The amendment also passed.

The 9th amendment was brought again by Congressman John Campbell, and stated that internet sites who advertise towards minors shall have their license revoked. This amendment passed.

The 10th amendment was brought by Congressman Melissa Bean of Illinois. It states that the Treasury is required to observe internet sites and provide sanctioned fines and revoke licenses if minors are found gambling. This amendment passed.

The 11th amendment was the manager’s amendment, and brought by the majority and minority member managing the debate. It states that bets are to be made with prepaid cards and debit cards only. Bettors will be restricted from using credit cards on internet gambling sites. Also, the House Financial Services Committee will not have jurisdiction on tribal rights. The amendment passed.

The 12th amendment was brought by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, and stated that internet sites would be forbidden from allowing people who are delinquent on child support payments from gambling on their sites. This was a major sticking point from states that already imposed such rules from casinos with jackpots. Violating sites would lose their license for failure to comply. This amendment also passed.

The 13th and final amendment was brought by Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan, offering State and tribal lotteries an exemption from licensing requirements as they’re already required to do that by their respective states. Thus, the Federal Government need not be involved. The amendment passed as well.
Once the passage of the final amendments were through, Rep. Bachus called for a roll call vote , and the opt-in amendment by Rep. Baca was defeated, then Bachus’ amendment was also defeated. Finally, the committee voted on the measure, approving HR 2267 by an overwhelming 41-22 vote.

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48 Responses to “HR2267 Passes Committee 41-22-1”

  1. Grandpa Coach avatar Grandpa Coach says:

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

  2. herballday avatar herballday says:

    holy shit, i hope this is good. then again, anything controlled by the US govt is always dog shit

  3. herballday avatar herballday says:

    say bye bye to rakeback and supernova. say hello to uncle sam’s cock in your ass

  4. Flexman2125 avatar Flexman2125 says:

    basicly what does all this mean>> cbf reading

  5. JMB488 avatar JMB488 says:

    I’m confused… How will this be another poker boom with pokerstars and full tilt possibly not getting a license?

  6. dave avatar dave says:

    From what the PPA is saying, Full Tilt and Stars are 100% behind this bill. It’s speculation but it appears they believe that they can prove legally that they never violated any US laws.

  7. Smoovious avatar Smoovious says:

    well, from what I gathered, it means even if it passes, and we’re allowed to re-buy into our accounts again, playing at FullTilt, UltimateBet, and our other favorite sites, will still be illegal… so all we’ll have available is crappy US-based sites…

    …which do not have a good history of being great places to play on, sorry to say.

    (I’m in the US)

    – Smoov

  8. pcboi avatar pcboi says:

    i just cancelled my withdrawal after seeing “2nd poker boom”, now read this . guess i should withdraw again lol

  9. wad avatar wad says:

    Get rich time for all thr sharks!

  10. theraguu avatar theraguu says:

    As it’s been stated time and time again, many Americans believe it’s illegal for them to play online. Casinos will have the ability to extend their properties online… advertising on tv/print, heavy competition by new startups etc.. etc… There’s much to look at than the current model.

  11. ebffs avatar ebffs says:

    @Smoovious

    what it means is sites that have played ball with the USA all along like Party Poker (also the only publicly traded online poker site) will have little trouble getting a license. Secondly it’s peanuts for them to set up offices on U.S. soil. Most gaming sites have several offices in various countries anyway.

  12. MrThomasMoyes avatar MrThomasMoyes says:

    Buy Party Gaming shares ASAP, stick ur bankrolls on it leveraged up to the eyeballs lol

  13. OpenedHead avatar OpenedHead says:

    wtf cliffs please

  14. choychoy avatar choychoy says:

    7% rake for everyone! yay!

  15. 149203 avatar 149203 says:

    By “2nd Boom” they mean, get taxed online: BOOM; pay income tax: BOOM.

  16. fuckgeorgew avatar fuckgeorgew says:

    +1 to herb

  17. Dudot avatar Dudot says:

    I’m glad they passed this but the amendments water this down. This bill should be simpler and poker sites should be allowed to run like a normal business.

  18. aenetomic avatar aenetomic says:

    everything reads like a potential loop hole that does absolutely nothing good for poker players.

  19. 0bullmarket0 avatar 0bullmarket0 says:

    Dose this change anything for Australian players? Dose everyone have to pay tax or just players in the US?

  20. Geraldstl avatar Geraldstl says:

    Bigest money online -poker business everbody wants now piece of cake.Some tips for my friends.#1 DO NOT PLAY WITHOUT RAKE #2 NEVER PLAY IN DARK WHITOUT SOFTWARE like :Poker Edge,Poker Crusher,Hold EM Manager,Poker Tracker 3 all of them u can free trial
    #3 Avoid sharks,regulars play behind loose players or maniacs ur only chance to win money
    #4 Download free poker books from Pirate Bay get educated–If u can profit $40 win in one day– that’s 15K profit 1YR.–If u play str forward discplined agressive poker u can make profit

  21. markk5 avatar markk5 says:

    We’ll be able to play online legally….for 5 minutes at 3:00 A.M. on the 2nd Blue Moon of the summer Equinox, but only at sites that are run by Indians or have paid off their local congressman, while bouncing on one leg and licking our own balls. Add 2 or 3 more amendments and maybe the IRS agent can come plug us in the ass WHILE we’re playing.

  22. pokerazmus avatar pokerazmus says:

    +1 to markk5 :)

    I am pretty sure that FullTilt and PokerStars will get the license. After all these are the sites who are behind the legal push and I am sure that they have connections to this bill.

    It was always legal to play poker online to all of us. It was illegal for banks and credit cards to process transactions for poker sites. What is interesting is that 11th amendment states that “.. bets are to be made with prepaid cards and debit cards only. Bettors will be restricted from using credit cards on internet gambling sites”. Does it mean that we still will not be able to legally use checking accounts? How else will we be able to withdrow money then? Unless it is a paper check that can be legally deposited into your banking account I don’t see any other possible solutions… But in a nutshell the only benefits are going to be on the end of poker sites and the government who will tax both players and the site.
    It will be even harder to stay a winning player because of all the taxes on winnings….

    Hmm, still not sure how this is positive news… it doesn’t say anything about offline poker… I want to open a poker club!!!!! And I still can’t do it…. Where are the benefits of this bill to players ?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

  23. the blunt avatar the blunt says:

    it says no credit cards because they don’t want a whole bunch of people running up huge debts with their credit cards gambling their money away. if you can use a debit card you can use a checking account, its the same thing

  24. __Punisher avatar __Punisher says:

    This is good numbskulls. Especially for those of you that don’t pay your taxes on poker but should. No more worrying now. Everything will be legal and on the up and up. At least for the most part..This will finally bring a lot of the casual players back that were lost when everything got weird with policies and bank transactions. No one can say the games haven’t been tougher over the past year or so, if you were around in 2004-2006 then you would know online poker needs a shot of life. This may just be it. And if you don’t think a great U.S. poker site can be launched by people that know what their doing you’re insane….Everything and I mean EVERYTHING about the business of poker is about bringing more casual players to the game, and just more players in general. This will do that for sure.

  25. Jhonny_Drama avatar Jhonny_Drama says:

    This is amazing news…. I would say that 80% of the people I talk with at a brick & mortar casino tell me “I don’t like to play online because they are over seas and do not TRUST them!”.

    I am anxious to see when these shops are relocated to US soil and regulated and hear what these people now say.

  26. timkroes avatar timkroes says:

    tl;dr obv

  27. flgatorfan1 avatar flgatorfan1 says:

    What’s this do for people between the age of 18 and 21?

  28. HemmaCuda avatar HemmaCuda says:

    I’m most concerned about the loss limit in the amendments….This could crush mid to high stakes

  29. HemmaCuda avatar HemmaCuda says:

    Loss limits are such bullshit anyway….If I’m worth a billion dollars F U if I want to lose a million playing online poker

  30. luvr avatar luvr says:

    I wish the government would just fuck off and not try to take money from something they know nothing about and have nothing to do with. They’re not helping us, they shouldn’t take our money.

  31. luvr avatar luvr says:

    They wanted nothing to do with online poker and tried to stop it. Now that there’s 21 year olds making tons of money than them they can’t stand it and try to tax and regulate the shit out of us.

  32. luvr avatar luvr says:

    People need to stand up to the government and make them do what WE THE PEOPLE want.

  33. ctizzie avatar ctizzie says:

    Does this mean Full Tilt will finally stop BEING RIGGED?

  34. dudderz1 avatar dudderz1 says:

    i love how bachman claims the govt should not intrude on people lives, which is a great view point. but feels the need to tell me what i can and cant do at home with my own money…. what a hipocryte

  35. ACE_viv_KING avatar ACE_viv_KING says:

    Party Poker or is going to bet the biggest poker ever now! pokerstars and full tilt will die slowly.

  36. bfox121 avatar bfox121 says:

    ”This amendment will forbid offshore sites that have illegally done business in the US, along with people who have been employed by sites that have conducted business illegally in the US, from getting a license”

    party poker will take the cake!!

  37. hermstick avatar hermstick says:

    does this mean i should withdraw immeditely to not get taxed?

  38. cuesta22 avatar cuesta22 says:

    @HemmaCuda

    Someone brought that up in the 2+2 forums (stop loss amendment)

    and apparently it just means sites will need to offer the option to set stop losses. so players will have the choice to set one, but if they don’t want one they DON’T have to.

    :-)

    And +100000 to __Punisher

  39. YoMeR avatar YoMeR says:

    OHHH BABBY PARTY POKER DAYS ARE COMIN BACK. I CAN SMELL THE CASH ALREADY.

  40. ACE_viv_KING avatar ACE_viv_KING says:

    toylor caby starts up cardrunnerspoker.com. usa usa usa

  41. L00K avatar L00K says:

    Same old story. Give up your freedom for protection.
    divide et impera??!

  42. KoldShadow avatar KoldShadow says:

    Re: L00K

    It’s only the beginning . . . although I do want to see online poker regulated and overseen by the government, I also realize what our corporate republic has in store for the consumer. It’s all good as long as I can keep getting rakeback, no-deposit bonuses and play big prize pool, private freerolls.

  43. danny avatar danny says:

    im gonna be richhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, booooom baby

  44. thecashsir avatar thecashsir says:

    I have a belly button!

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