Online Gambling Legal Expert Cabot Believes Frank Bill Will Fail

Representative Barney Frank is gaining a large amount of support in Congress for his proposed legislation that would open the door to regulated online gambling in the US. Even with all the support, however, online gambling legal expert Tony Cabot believes the time is not now for the Bills passage.

Of all the comments that Las Vegas-based Cabot made while speaking at the International Masters of Gaming Law conference this past week in Amsterdam, one opinion stood out from the rest.

Cabot believes that the current sites that are receiving most of the revenue from US players these days, mostly PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, will be major players in keeping Rep. Frank's legislation from passing. The theory would be that the two sites are currently accepting US players, and that would leave them low on the list of sites that could possibly receive licenses in a reformed US online gambling industry.

In order to prevent that from happening, Cabot believes these sites would use their resources to ensure the legislation does not pass. There are also Las Vegas land based casino owners who are against Internet gambling.

Steve Wynn has already hired lobbyists to fight against the Frank Bill. Harrah's, on the other hand, is pushing for Internet gambling regulation. They have already begun the process of familiarizing themselves with the operating procedures for online gambling.

While Cabot feels that the timing is not right for Frank's Bill to pass, other lawmakers disagree. In recent weeks, Bob Barr, a presidential candidate just a year ago, claimed that Frank's Bill was stirring up discussions in Washington. Barr feels that the possible revenue is too great for lawmakers to ignore.

This past week, Senator Ron Wyden proposed an amendment that would have used revenue from Internet gambling to bridge the financial gap for health care reform. Wyden later in the week pulled that proposal because the issues of health care and Internet gambling are too heavy to tackle at once.

That is the main reason that Cabot feels the timing is not right for the Frank legislation. In the future, maybe Internet gambling regulations will become reality, but not anytime soon, according to Cabot.

"Nothing is going to happen this year," said Cabot, "Barney Frank has already pushed his (legislation proposal) back, and once we get into next year we will be into an election cycle. The Democrats, in particular, are under a lot of stress at the moment and the last thing Democrats want to get involved in is an unpopular fight because the Republicans will be all over it."

September 26, 2009
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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