User talk:Hbaum16/Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006

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The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 was the final online gambling provision added to the SAFE Port Act which was passed to cover port security. This act is Title VIII of the SAFE Port Act and was added in the last moment, minutes before the election period recess. According to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), no one on the Senate-House Conference Committee had seen the final language of the bill before it was passed.. According to the overview posted on the FDIC website, the act prohibits gambling businesses from "restricted transactions". Restricted transactions involve gambling businesses when they knowingly accept payments from another person in a bet or wager on the internet. It also requires that the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board with consultation of the Attorney General to promulgate regulations requiring certain participants in payment systems that could be used for unlawful Internet gambling to have policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit the processing of restricted transactions. These regulations are independent of any other regulatory framework, such as the Bank Secrecy Act or consumer protection regulations.

Section 5361, Findings and Purpose

The Act begins with Congress’s findings and purpose. Findings include a recommendation from the now discredited National Gambling Impact Study Commission. One of the controversial findings asserted in the opening of the bill is the assertion that Internet gambling is a growing problem for banks and credit card companies. The opening section of the act also states that that “new mechanisms for enforcing gambling laws on the Internet are necessary,” especially for cross-border betting. The Act contains a clause that ensures no change be made any other law or Indian compact. This clause makes known that the Act cannot be used as a defense to another crime, or to expand existing gambling.

Section 5362, Definitions

This section outlines definitions of gambling terms to be used throughout the act. The Act defines a bet or wager to include risking something of value on the outcome of a contest, sports event, “or a game subject to chance.” The “game subject to chance” restriction is designed to include Internet poker in the act.