Thursday May 25, 2006, was 'a day of infamy' for the online gambling industry, for that was the day that the House Judiciary Committee passed HR 4777, otherwise known as the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Right on the heels of that passage came HR 4411, or the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement. The House Judiciary Committee favors that bill as well, and both bills seem likely to be reinforced when submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Justice propose to ordain Banks and credit card companies as 'watchdogs' by empowering these establishments to deny any transfer of funds between the U.S. and offshore gambling sites. Electronic transfer of funds between a player in the U.S. and an internet gambling site would be labeled as 'a criminal offenseunder this new legislation.

In addition, internet service providers, AOL, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., would be required to cut off access to these sites from all computers in the U.S. thus effectively eliminating the possibility of a potential internet gambler to access these sites by computer.

These U.S. Government actions are already being bitterly opposed and contested by the multi-billion dollar gaming industry, and associations such as the Poker Players Alliance. Michael Bolcerek, who is the president of the Poker Players Alliance claims that 'These bills promote an egregious intrusion into the personal affairs of ordinary Americans.' He further stated, 'Poker is a uniquely American game enjoyed by more than 70 million people in this country. Simply putting the word internet in front of poker should not criminalize this American tradition and the people who play it. Let's take a step in the right direction in the favor of good public policy that assesses online poker in the 21st century and not relive the mistakes of 1930's prohibition.'

2004 World Series of Poker Champion Greg Raymer, and online poker star Chris Savage both agree that Congress is taking a huge step toward the 'big brother way of life.' The players also said they would be against this legislation 'even if we did not play poker.'

Lawmakers sponsoring these bills made sure to exempt online horse racing and state-run lotteries, since distaste of the loss of revenue from these enterprises caused similar legislation to fail in Congress in 2000.

However, this favoring of state-run lotteries and online horse racing could prove to be the 'Achilles heel' that could open the proposed laws to arguments of favoritism, and either prevent these bills from being passed or tie up the legislators and pro vs. con arguments.

It could further be pointed out by those who oppose this legislation that in countries such as England, online gambling is legal, government regulated and taxed.