FC: Net-gambling bill is way for special interests to get favors

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33353-2000May30.html

Online Gambling Bill a Web of Industry Favors

By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 31, 2000 ; A03

The Internet Gambling Prohibition bill was supposed to do just what its 
name implied: curb the explosion of online gambling. But as the bill heads 
into the final stretch in Congress, it has become a magnet for favors to 
gambling interests.

First, there is the $14 billion a year parimutuel horse racing industry, 
which would get a share of the proceeds from bets placed on a home 
computer. Wielding influence through its nationwide network of tracks, 
breeders and horse farms, the industry has won concessions that the Justice 
Department says would "expand gambling opportunities."

That exception has set off a frenzy among other groups--from Indian tribes 
to states with lotteries--clamoring for the same privileges. Before the 
Senate passed the measure in November, the American Greyhound Track 
Operators won a similar exception for dog tracks. Then in the House, Rep. 
Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) went to bat for the state's jai alai industry--and 
jai alai was added to the list.

As a result, several Christian right organizations have pulled their 
support. And the anti-gambling bill--once a seemingly straightforward 
effort to clamp down on a fast-growing phenomenon--has become bogged down 
in the war of clashing interests, with groups from professional sports 
leagues to Internet service providers to credit card companies angling to 
protect their interests.

The established casino industry has been a prime mover behind the bill 
because it would curb the
online upstarts the industry fears could cut into its profits.

But after unanimously passing the Senate last year and winning approval in 
the House Judiciary
Committee in April, the legislation is "in trouble," one aide to the House 
Republican leadership said.
No date has been set for floor action.

The biggest current dispute involves state lotteries, which do not sell 
tickets online but want to be able
to compete in cyberspace. In a bid to retain support from Christian groups, 
the House Judiciary
Committee put severe restrictions on state lotteries before it approved the 
bill.

Lobbyists for the online companies that would handle this business have 
mobilized the National
Governors Association and individual governors to ask House Speaker J. 
Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and
other top House Republicans for help. They have urged Congress to let 
states decide for themselves
whether to permit the use of the Internet for local lottery operations.

[...]

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