The US Congress may consider a gambling bill that would annul a federal gambling ban. This, on the other hand, would allow the country to make any form of gambling legal and regulate it.
The bill, called Gaming Accountability and Modernization Enhancement Act (GAME Act), provides thorough details and minimum standards for the regulation of both retail and online gambling operations. Its main sponsor is Representative Frank Pallone, who called the state-level authorities to confess that some laws were outdated and explained that the GAME Act would make them more up to date. According to him, the proposed bill would modernize current gambling laws by making operations more transparent and fair and by boosting customer protections.
From historical point of view, gambling regulation in the US has been left to the state, with each of them being able to decide whether to make gambling operations legal. Sports betting, however, has been included in some federal laws, including PASPA of 1992, the Wire Act of 1961, the Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1955 and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
The draft of the comprehensive legislation (GAME Act) was officially presented by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and as mentioned above, is aimed at remove the federal ban on certain forms of gambling. The bill also seeks to provide the Federal Trade Commission with the oversight authority and to clearly outline the customer protection rules that need to be placed in order for the states to make sports betting and fantasy sports betting legal.
The best thing about the Gaming Accountability and Modernization Enhancement Act is its simplicity. Currently, all sports wagering outside Nevada is prohibited under the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). The GAME Act, however, is not aimed at regulating gambling on national level, but would make separate states able to set their own rules about sports betting and online gambling.
In other words, if the GAME Act is enacted, it would annul the 1992 federal law and would allow every state to separately add sports betting and online gaming to the gambling operations that are legal there. As explained above, customer protection rules, as well as rules about taxation and regulations are also implemented in the proposed piece of legislation.
Stakeholders are also allowed to give their feedback for the GAME Act. As it has already became clear, the American Gaming Association backed the legal expansion of sports betting operations. Other organizations, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) do not support the bill.
The main sponsor of the bill, Representative Frank Pallone commented that about $400 billion are being wagered by American citizens on sporting events an annual basis. According to him, it is high time for the outdated legislation to be made more up to date. In his opinion, the multi-billion dollar industry of the country have been seriously hit by gambling-related crimes, saying that illegal gambling was prevailing in the country, so the laws need to be updated in order to match the contemporary industry.
- Author
Daniel Williams
