Mark Up for U.S. Online Poker Bill Now Slated for Wednesday

Dustin Gouker : July 27th, 2010


RELATED ARTICLES


A planned committee hearing in Congress to consider a bill that would legalize and regulate online poker and gambling in the United States was pushed back to Wednesday.
The House Committee on Financial Services had a mark up of H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, on its agenda for Tuesday. But because of other legislation being considered by the committee, H.R. 2267 was not considered and the bill’s mark up was moved to Wednesday’s schedule.
H.R. 2267 was introduced by the committee’s chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
A “mark up” is where a Congressional committee considers and makes changes to a bill before it is voted on by the committee and eventually sent on to the full House of Representatives, should it pass that committee vote. A mark up session in Congressional committees is often followed by a committee vote.
The committee is expected to reconvene in the morning and consider H.R. 2267, along with other legislation.
H.R. 2267 would unequivocally make online poker fully legal in the United States, if it becomes a law. It would set up a regulatory framework for licensing of online poker and gambling operators that want to do business in the United States. The bill would also allow states to “opt out” if they don’t want their constituents to be able to play online poker.
The bill faces a long road to become law. If the marked up bill is passed by the House committee, it would need to be approved by the full House in a majority vote, then it would also need to pass a vote in the Senate by a majority before being signed into law by the President.
We’ll have more updates as events warrant.