Yay DemLibs! - Bringing back 'net gambling!

wiffleball · April 25, 2007

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In a move that may help buoy gaming stocks, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said Wednesday that he plans to introduce a bill Thursday to undo restrictions on Internet gambling.

Speaking to a community bankers group, the Massachusetts Democrat called Internet gambling a "victimless crime."

"Why anyone thinks it is any of my business why some adult wants to gamble is absolutely beyond me," Frank said.

Current law prevents U.S. banks and credit-card companies from processing payments to online-gambling businesses outside the country.

Congress passed this law in October. Shares of U.K.-based Internet-gambling companies like PartyGaming (UK:PRTY: news, chart, profile) and 888 Holdings (UK:888: news, chart, profile) fell sharply as a result. The U.K. companies get most of their revenue from U.S. poker and sports bettors.

Andrew Parmentier, a senior policy analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, said that he believes the bill will make headway. "Absolutely there's a chance" for reform of the law, he added.

In a research note Tuesday, Parmentier said that the bill could help boost gambling companies' shares.

"We believe this week's events, coupled with our belief that legislation will pass the House and receive serious considerations and bipartisan support in the Senate, are positive catalysts for content providers," he wrote.

Frank called the law, called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, "a great mistake."

"I spend a lot of my time trying to protect people from other people who are going to treat them unfairly," Frank remarked in a speech before the Independent Community Bankers of America. "I have no energy left for protecting people from themselves."

After the speech, Frank, who took over as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee this year, declined to provide details of the planned legislation.

The estimated 12 million to 20 million online gamblers in the United States contribute more than half the industry's estimated worldwide annual revenue of $12 billion, according to the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Frank plans a news conference to discuss the bill, titled the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007, on Thursday morning.