Wednesday’s hearing on internet gambling in the House Financial Services Committee has been pushed back one hour to 2:00pm ET. Also announced on Tuesday were the five witnesses that will present testimony in front of the Barney Frank-led group.
Included in the panel is Poker News Daily Guest Columnist, UB.com sponsored pro, and reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke. The “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up’s testimony was published on the House Financial Services Committee’s website earlier today and reads in part, “At its most basic level, the issue before this committee is personal freedom – the right of individual Americans to do what they want in the privacy of their homes without the intrusion of the government.”
Duke will speak on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the 1.2 million member strong lobbying group for the industry. After providing several personal freedom arguments, Duke will share a new vantage point on HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act: “To be clear, HR 2267 is not a bill that expands internet gambling in America. It simply provides the appropriate government safeguards to an industry that currently exists and continues to grow.”
Ranking Member Spencer Bachus and others have voiced the concern that legalizing internet gambling in the United States essentially equates to placing a 24-hour casino in every person’s bedroom. In response, Duke will argue in her testimony on Wednesday, “Under a U.S.-regulated system, an authorized licensee would be required to have technologies in place to prevent minors from playing.”
Joining Duke to speak in front of the 71-member Committee is Ed Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Discovery Federal Credit Union on behalf of the Credit Union National Association. Representing the Commerce Casino, which is entrenched in a battle of its own over legalized intrastate online poker in California, will be Tom Malkasian, its Vice Chairman and Director of Strategic Planning.
Rounding out the five-witness panel are the Mohegan Tribe’s Lynn Malerba and Law Enforcement and Anti-Terrorism Consultant Michael Fagan. Once again, no representatives from the United States Treasury or Federal Reserve will be present. The two government agencies were responsible for delaying mandatory compliance with the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) for six months in late November. In a December House Financial Services Committee hearing, Bachus called for Treasury and Federal Reserve officials to be present at a follow-up hearing.
No markup of HR 2267 is scheduled for tomorrow. Poker fans can catch the proceedings via a webcast on the official website of the House Financial Services Committee and the event in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building will likely run one to two hours.
Internet gambling is the only topic on the docket for the Committee on Wednesday. As a follow-up, monetary policy and the state of the economy will take center stage on Thursday. Congress was out from July 5th to 9th for the Fourth of July and is scheduled to recess once again from August 9th to September 10th. Its target adjournment date is October 8th, one month ahead of November’s general elections in the United States.
If HR 2267 is not acted upon by the end of the year, it will be deemed “dead” and must be reintroduced in the new Congress, which will convene in January. The measure was introduced in May 2009 and has attracted 69 co-sponsors, both Democrats and Republicans. Its tax companion bill, Jim McDermott’s HR 4976, was discussed in the House Ways and Means Committee two months ago, but was not acted upon.
