Senator Wants Credit Ban on Online Gaming

If one U.S. Senator has his way, credit card companies won't be allowed to work with Internet gaming groups.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) is drafting a bill to stop Internet gambling companies like Gibraltar-based PartyGaming by prohibiting credit-card-issuing banks from handling all online betting transactions.

Kyl has support from the American Gaming Association, a trade group representing land-based casinos, to whom Internet gambling is believed the biggest competitive threat. But the equally influential U.S. horse racing industry, the Native Americans whose reservations host gambling on and offline, and state lotteries that sell billions of tickets in cyberspace, could oppose the Kyl measure strongly enough to kill it, according to published reports.

"There seems to be no combination of exemptions that would be acceptable to all those who have an interest in this bill," an unnamed PartyGaming representative told reporters. "PartyGaming does not believe the current proposals will gain sufficient support to be enacted."

Kyl has tried on seven previous occasions to get such legislation through Congress. His eighth try comes on the heels of Justice Department pressure on banks and credit companies against handling online betting. Justice also has threatened various advertisers and media companies against carrying Internet gambling ads in the recent past.

The Kyl bill is also believed to be an appeasement of the World Trade Organization, which has held the U.S. in breach of international agreements for blocking offshore gaming from attracting American customers while allowing some online betting through horse racing and state lotteries.

PartyGaming is considered the world's largest Internet poker company and is said to be preparing for an initial public offering later this month.