During the summer of 2007 a few different legislators introduced various laws about online gaming. On May 3, 2007 Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) introduced a bill to have the National Academy of Sciences study internet gambling. The bill is called the Internet Gambling Study Act.

The thrust of this legislation is to have the National Academy of Sciences conduct a study of internet gambling that would include analysis of the impact the UIGEA has had on online gambling in the United States. The study would be very comprehensive and cover a wide range of topics, not just the UIGEA. Existing laws would be analyzed to determine their effectiveness and whether or not existing law conflict with each other. The study would also analyze how extensive internet gambling is. Many other provisions in this bill direct the study to do an analysis of the legality of online gaming in some form. There are issues of federalism, technological issues, and World Trade Organization to be explored and the report would cover all of those areas.

From a legislative perspective this bill sounds nice but it does not really do anything. It basically asks the NationalAcademy to study what other organizations already do. The study also is also directed to be completed within 12 months of passage. A quality study covering such complicated issues will be hard-pressed to have a report ready in this amount of time. Studies have also been used by Congress to essentially table an issue. After a study is completed Congress may say thank you and then put it aside taking no further action. If this bill is passed I would not expect much to come from it.

This bill has attracted 68 co-sponsors so far and many of the lawmakers who have introduced their own legislation have signed onto Rep. Berkley’s bill as well. Notably absent from the cosponsor list however are Republicans with powerful positions or committee assignments. This could hinder passage of the bill. On June 4, 2007 this bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.