My girlfriend, Lisa, was looking to rent a house and she found the perfect place. She couldn't have been more pleased. The place was the right size, in a gorgeous location bordering a natural reserve, and at a great price. She had done several interviews with the owners, and wanted to rent the house and the "mini-house" on the property for her husbands growing jewelry business. When she called the woman who owned the house to see if she had got it the owner replied, "It's one hundred percent you," and after a moment she added, "or someone else." Right. That's helpful. Not.

When she told me the story I started laughing immediately. The reply brought to mind a saying I like to use myself quite a bit. "I'm completely right, unless I'm not."

Which brings be to last weeks column where I said that there was no way the anti-internet gambling legislation was going to pass in the Senate after getting kicked off the Defense Department bill. I was wrong.

I woke up early Sunday morning with a bad feeling and went straight to the computer to find out what had happened. I did a Google news search for "anti-internet gambling bill" and sure enough I found out what my gut already knew. The Senate passed the anti-internet gambling bill and soon it is expected to become law. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist attached the anti-internet gambling bill, otherwise known as 'Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006', to the Safe Port Act in a last minute effort. It passed in both the House and Senate by Saturday morning. The president is expected to sign it and make it law within the next two weeks.

Is that a dirge I hear in the distance? By golly goodness, I think it is.

Internet gambling was a $12 billion dollar industry. I say was because the United States is considered responsible for nearly 80% of the profit in the industry. There are some online gambling establishments which didn't cater to the US market, but they are not big enough internationally for me to know about them. I'm writing for the US market, after all.

I'm still in a state of shock about all this. I called my boss on Sunday and told him about the news. He hasn't been watching the legislation as closely as I have, but then that is part of what he pays me for. The Port Security Bill passed with an overwhelming vote of 421 to 2. According to the Washington Post, "Only two House members opposed the measure yesterday, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who said the price tag is too high, and Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who contended that the bill does not go far enough to ensure the safety of vulnerable seaports."

"House Republicans will continue to do what is right to protect American families and prevent a tragedy like September 11th from occurring ever again," said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "We understand that we must secure our ports in order to protect our citizens."
The bill is H.R. 4954, and was something I took no notice of until Sunday. I looked it up in the Library of Congress online and found the title, "To improve maritime and cargo security through enhanced layered defenses, and for other purposes."

So what does all of this really mean? To be completely honest at this point I'm not completely sure. All that about the safety of the ports is well and good. I couldn't agree with it more actually, but what I don't get is how port safety is related to internet gambling. I suppose internet gambling falls under, "and for other purposes."

There were hone hundred and ten amendments added to this legislation before it was passed. Some were added as late as September 14th, but weren't actually described on the internet site. Instead the site posted the statement, "Purpose will be available when the amendment is proposed for consideration. See Congressional Record for text." I searched the page for the words "internet", "gambling", "deposit" and came up with nothing.

I know that the law doesn't actually affect the 1961 Wire Act, as the amendments to that were dropped from the bill. I still don't know what that means. At this point it is a round of hunting for information. Real, helpful, information seems to be in short supply.

I checked the PartyGaming site, where they issued a statement. This was more helpful. The new anti-internet gambling act, "will immediately make unlawful the receipt by a gambling business of proceeds or monies in connection with unlawful internet gambling. The Act does not clarify the definition of unlawful gambling. However, as the first piece of Federal legislation dealing explicitly with internet gaming, it does make clear that the US government intends to stop the flow of funds from Americans to online gaming operators through criminal sanction. The Act also asserts that, under US law, a wager must be permitted under the laws both of the customer’s place of residence and that of the operator."

As I mentioned previously, PartyGaming intends on ending their relationship with US clients. "After taking extensive legal advice, the Board of PartyGaming Plc has concluded that the new legislation, if signed into law, will make it practically impossible to provide US residents with access to its real money poker and other real money gaming sites. As a result of this development, the Board of PartyGaming has determined that if the President signs the Act into law, the Company will suspend all real money gaming business with US residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation. Access to PartyGaming's online gaming sites for the Group's US free play customers will be unaffected. Access for all of PartyGaming’s non-US customers will also be unaffected."

It's like taking down an 800-ft gorilla. More to come tomorrow.

Posted on: October 3, 2006

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