A lame duck Congress is seen as unlikely to limit or ban Internet gambling when it comes back for its final work following next week's elections.
At least that's what Interactive Gaming Council lobbyist Dan Walsh believes. "The absence of consensus with respect to what is legal and what is carved out is going to continue to create problems," he said to reporters, as lawmakers headed off for their final pre-election campaigning.
Las Vegas will continue watching the e-gambling path on Capitol Hill no matter when Congress gets back to the issue, since that city's gambling interests can't move a muscle thanks to Congressional inactivity even as the shadier sides of world e-gambling and related commerce continue to grow.
A reported 30 Web sites hauled in $30 million in bets in 1996, when U.S. lawmakers first tried putting the clamp on e-gambling. That was then, this is now: over 1,800 Web sites expected to take in around $7 billion in bets, according to BetonSports.com.
Last year, the Senate Banking Committee passed restrictions pressed by Sen. Jon R. Kyl (R-Arizona), a longtime e-gambling foe, with the House the same year approving banning credit cards and checks to pay for Internet bets. The Kyl bill was similar, but the Banking Committee wanted to stop states from authorizing e-bets within their own borders, a proposal drawing almost immediate fire from the American Gaming Association, accusing Kyl of favoring Indian and pari-mutuel betting operations over mainstream casinos, according to one analysis.
