As it was reported on the international news site, Bloomberg.com, Las Vegas hotel and casino operator and owner of the World Series of Poker, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and the online sportsbetting site Youbet.com Inc. have joined the list of companies, politicians, entrepreneurs and poker players supporting the new online gambling legislation to be introduced today by Representative Barney Frank, which could finally legalize and tax certain forms of online gambling and repeal the existing ban and restrictions imposed by the UIGEA.

 

“This is a thriving industry, they (the U.S government) can put in a regulatory structure and they can tax it.” said Harrah Vice President Jan Jones, who traveled to Washington this week to meet with lawmakers and staff members.

 

Since its approval in October, 2006, the UIGEA has raised a series of concerns and critics due its ambiguity, vagueness and impossibility to establish exactly what constitutes “Unlawful Internet Gambling”. The block on all online gambling activities also launched a series of legal disputes between online gambling operators and the U.S Government. Several online poker sites, sportsbetting firms and online casino operators licensed in countries such as Antigua, UK, Costa Rica and other regions filed complaints in the WTO objecting the legality of the rules and directives compelled in the UIGEA. According to these complaints, the law constitutes a violation to the International Trade Agreements, in addition lawyers and opponents of the UIGEA claim the law makes no distinction between legal and illegal online wagering and it doesn’t affect intestate online betting on horse racing.

 

Besides Harrah’s and Youbet, the list of supporters also includes the Poker Players Alliance, London-based online payments provider UC Group Ltd., online gambling operators, banks, state lotteries as well as thousands of professional and recreational poker players. To help Frank in his effort to legalize online gambling, the Poker Players Alliance has invested over $400K in lobbying expenses during the first quarter of 2009. The alliance has enlisted poker pros such as Howard Lederer, who traveled to Washington last month to take part in a charity poker tournament that raised more than $200,000 to fight cancer. Several lawmakers attended, including Frank, Representative Joe Barton, Texas Republican and Senator Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat. Lawmakers also joined poker pros at charity tournaments staged at both parties’ national political conventions held last year.