Internet Gambling: A Sketch of Legislative Proposals in the 108th and 109th Congresses

RS21487 -- Internet Gambling: A Sketch of Legislative Proposals in the 108th and 109th Congresses

Updated April 4, 2006

Summary

In the 109th Congress, two bills have been introduced regarding Internet gambling: H.R. 4411, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2005 (Representative Leach), and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (Representative Goodlatte). H.R. 4411, which was approved by voice vote by the House Committee on Financial Services on March 15, 2006, seems to most closely track provisions set forth in two similar bills from the 108th Congress (H.R. 21 and S. 627), as it contains both regulatory controls, criminal penalties, and civil remedies. H.R. 4411, however, moves away from the approach used in these earlier bills (as introduced) to exempt Internet gambling associated with state-licensed gambling businesses. Instead, the bill contains an exemption for "Intrastate Transactions" where the bet or wager is made exclusively within a state and does not violate state or federal law. The bill also contains an exception for Indian gaming for bets or wagers made exclusively within or between tribal lands that do not violate tribal or federal law or an applicable Tribal-State Compact. The other bill introduced in this Congress, H.R. 4777 (Goodlatte), seems most closely related to H.R. 3215 (107th Congress, first session), introduced by Representative Goodlatte, which was reported out of the Judiciary Committee. This bill is designed to clarify the application of the Wire Act to Internet gambling. For a more detailed description of the proposals in the 109th Congress, see CRS Report RS22418, Internet Gambling: Two Approaches in the 109th Congress, by [author name scrubbed].