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White House Doesnt Back Current House Bill on Internet Gambling

There are problems with the legislation, officially known as House Resolution 4411 - Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, the least of which is that the White House doesn't seem to back it in its current form.

The Office of Management and Budget issued a terse statement of support, but said, without elaborating, that "the Administration has some concerns with the bill and looks forward to working with Congress to strengthen and improve the legislation."

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill intended to outlaw online gambling in the United States. It may come as a surprise to some people that online gambling isn't already illegal. Online gambling has existed for several years in a kind of legal limbo, but the Justice Department has always considered it illegal, which may come as a bigger surprise to even more people, namely those Americans who wager approximately $6 billion a year online.

The bill is intended to update the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, legislation that outlawed betting on sports across state lines over the telephone, by specifically including the Internet and any other form of electronic communication.

The bill has a couple of glaring contradictions, known in the legislative biz as "carve outs," namely exceptions for state lotteries and horse racing. The problem is, it gets harder and harder to draw distinctions between legal and illegal forms of gambling, as anyone knows who has tried to explain to his or her 11-year-old why playing poker for lunch money is bad but betting on the lottery is OK.