The House of Representatives today voted 317 to 93 for a bill that tries to prohibit offshore Net-gambling. It targets Internet service providers and financial intermediaries, namely banks and credit card companies that process payments to offshore Web sites: http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6092852.html Here's the vote total, which is largely (though not completely) partisan, with the Republicans supporting the so-called Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll363.xml Here's the text of the bill, which says ISPs can be forced to block access to offshore gambling sites after being slapped with a court order: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04411: There are two interesting asides here. First, how will this work on a technical level? The Federal Reserve is supposed to come up with regulations applying to certain "designated payment systems" (including not just credit cards and Paypal but also eGold and FirePay). Those DPSs must find ways to block payments representing a "restricted transaction," which should be entertaining to try to identify. Second, the bill contains carve-outs for, say, horseracing. That's according to no less an authority than the National Thoroughbred Racing Association: http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=pac&style=red&id=18064 But a vote on an amendment (admittedly, a poison pill one) to cover *all* forms of Internet gambling failed: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll361.xml -Declan _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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