As Barney Frank’s online gambling bill is put through the ringer, some amendments have been made along the way. If the bill does get passed, it is likely that it will look different than it did when it was submitted.
First of all, Las Vegas casinos have been fighting the bill out of fear that they will lose a great deal of business. The House Finance Committee decided to change a couple of things; if online gambling were to be legalized and regulated in the US, then Las Vegas casino operators would have first choice when it came to applying for online gambling licenses. They believed it is the only way to ensure fairness for land-based casino operators.
Both Barney Frank and his biggest opponent, Representative Bacchus agreed that if the online gambling bill moves forward, any online gambling sites that are in violation of the current US gambling laws (UIGEA) will not be issued a license and will therefore be unable to operate legally in the US.
There are a number of big names in online gambling who have accepted US players against the law and those operators will be penalized for their transgressions. The US online gambling market is one of the largest in the world and is worth billions of dollars. Not being granted a license would nmean that those operators would be blacklisted from the US online gambling market.
