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Hearing on UIGEA to Finally Take Place |
 The long-debated, opposed and severely controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the number one culprit behind our inability to play poker online easily in the United States, is finally going to be heard in a public forum, via a discussion of the proposed rules of the act. The hearing will take places on Wednesday April 2nd in a House subcommittee known as “Proposed UIGEA Regulations: Burden without Benefit?”
The hearing is being run by the Domestic and International Monetary Police Trade and Technology (SMPTT) committee, a divided sect of the House Committee of Financial Services.
Rep. Robert Wexler is one of the more well known members of the SMPTT. Wexler is the main representative of the Skill Game Protection Act, which is meant to work in protection of games of skill, in which poker is included. This act would take poker out of consideration as a game of luck and therefore prohibit the government’s attempts to limit American poker play. Wexler has been a vocal opponent to the UIGEA for many years.
Former presidential candidate Ron Paul is also a member of the SMPTT and an opponent of the UIGEA.
The committee with discuss in part the list of rules submitted by the Department of the Treasury in October 2007 which were meant to govern U.S. poker play. Since then the government has received more than 200 letters arguing against the rules.
This hearing will be the first address of these concerns over the UIGEA in a public forum.
Contents of who will speak at the hearing have not yet been released.
The hearing will begin at 10 am on April 2nd and can be viewed online via the house of representatives website.
March 27, 2008
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