03-10-2007 Maryland and Florida Attorneys General express concerns about IGREA

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler together with Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum believe Barney Frank's Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, which proposes to regulate and license internet gambling at federal level, would undermine states’ traditional powers to make and enforce their own gambling laws.

"H.R. 2046 would throw open the doors of the United States and allow for the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in American history," said Attorney General Gansler. "This attempt to divest the States of their gambling enforcement power is sweeping and unprecedented. We oppose this proposal, and any other proposal that hinders the rights of States to prohibit or regulate gambling by their residents."

In related news, Rep. Barney Frank questioned the value of legislation calling for a study of internet gambling proposed by Nevada Representatives Berkley and Porter: "What's to study? Whether or not I should be able to make my own bet with my own money?"

Meanwhile, the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association said the regulations proposed under UIGEA by the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve would aggravate the intolerable circumstances already imposed on digital civil rights, by stifling innovation on the internet and impeding the US content-neutral financial system.

"The regulations, while they are supposed to provide for a system which identifies legal transactions between persons who are allowed to enjoy Interactive gaming, instead virtually condemn the system to complete elimination because of the payment system providers’ risk of criminal penalties and injunction against further financial transactions if they guess wrong," iMEGA said today in a statement.