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Leach holds C.R. hearing on Internet gaming bill
 
Steve Gravelle

The Gazette

September 1, 2006

[Note: This material is copyright by The Gazette, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of The Gazette.]



  CEDAR RAPIDS — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will back legislation to ban Internet gambling when Congress reconvenes this fall.

  ‘‘It’s illegal, but most Americans don’t know it’s illegal, which makes it our responsibility to act,’’ Frist said Thursday afternoon at a hearing chaired by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, at Coe College in Cedar Rapids.

  In July, the House approved by a wide margin a bill sponsored by Leach that would ban the use of credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to pay online gambling debts. Witnesses at Thursday’s hearing urged Frist to push the bill’s Senate counterpart, sponsored by Arizona Republican John Kyl, to passage this fall.

  Not that Frist needed much persuading.

  On the Web, gambling ‘‘is so reachable that you can pull it into your sphere,’’ Frist said. ‘‘It makes it possible to gamble anytime.’’ Former University of Iowa and NFL player Merton Hanks said he tried to avoid obvious gamblers during his playing career but that the popularity of online gambling is making it more difficult for current players.

  ‘‘I also hear from them that they are receiving increased pressure from another group of so-called supporters,’’ said Hanks, now the NFL’s senior manager of football operations. ‘‘While it remains a minority of the fans, today’s players perceive it to be a growing threat.’’ ‘‘I do not think that this increased betting is healthy for the sport I love, nor is it good for the players who are playing as hard as they can to win games, not to cover bets,’’ Hanks said.

  The only opposition at the hearing came in a letter from Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who opposes the immediate ban. A Leach staffer read the letter into the minutes.

  Porter, who doesn’t think a ban would be effective, wants Congress to name a bipartisan committee to study the problem before acting.

  The online gaming industry ‘‘is crying out for regulation and is resigned to taxation,’’ Sue Schneider, past chairwoman of the Interactive Gaming Council, said in a telephone interview.

  Schneider said online gambling is regulated and taxed in 88 countries. Allowing regulated gaming in the United States would make it easier for sites to ban underage and problem gamblers, she said.

  ‘‘There is some regulated Internet gaming in the U.S. now, mainly in horse racing,’’ she said. ‘‘They’ve done it with very little problem.’’ Had she attended Thursday’s hearing, Schneider would have found no support from the eight witnesses.

  While online gaming gets the smallest share of the overall gambling market, ‘‘the most serious problems related to gambling come from those who are gambling on the Internet,’’ Deputy Iowa Attorney General Mark Vander Linden said.

  ‘‘We are at the incipient stage of Internet gambling,’’ Leach said. ‘‘For all of the problems that exist today, they are likely to expand substantially.’’