HR 6663
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6663
To amend title 31, United States Code, to provide additional clarification
with regard to the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act of 2006, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 30, 2008
Mr. SESSIONS (for himself, Mr. BERRY, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, and Mr. DELAHUNT)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial
Services, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend title 31, United States Code, to provide additional clarification
with regard to the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act of 2006, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification
and Implementation Act of 2008'.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings- Congress finds the following:
(1) Prior to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
of 2006 (hereafter in this section referred to as the `UIGEA'), Public Law
109-347, on October 13, 2006, Federal law was both vague and outdated regarding
Internet gambling activities, as Federal criminal gambling statutes were
passed decades before the commercial use of the Internet.
(2) To date, all Federal Internet gambling prosecutions have involved sports
betting, creating a lack of authoritative court decisions on the applicability
of other federal criminal statutes to Internet poker and casino-style gambling.
(3) Sports betting, which is illegal in 49 of the 50 States, is viewed as
particularly harmful because its potential adverse impact on the integrity
of professional and amateur sports, and is the one form of gambling where
there is settled Federal case law clarifying it as illegal on the Internet.
(4) Many European Internet gambling companies offering services not including
sports betting to persons in the United States were fully listed on the
London Stock Exchange, and thereby subject to high standards of transparency
and scrutiny, but upon receiving clarification of United States law regarding
Internet gaming through the enactment of the UIGEA, these companies closed
their sites to persons in the United States.
(5) Continued legal jeopardy for companies that made a good faith effort
to comply voluntarily with clarified United States law following the passage
of the UIGEA punishes behavior that the law intended to foster and inadvertently
rewards continued noncompliance by other foreign entities.
(6) In light of the foregoing and in deference to long-standing constitutional
requirements of fair notice and transparency in the criminal law, the Congress
finds it necessary to clarify that criminal statutes applicable to gambling
do not apply to any person who offered Internet gambling services that did
not include sports betting prior to October 13, 2006, and who ceased offering
Internet gambling services to persons in the United States upon passage
of the UIGEA.
(7) To effect the purposes and intent of the UIGEA, it is the sense of the
Congress that the Attorney General should focus any prosecutorial efforts
on those persons who--
(A) offer Internet sports betting in the United States; or
(B) process payments for illegal Internet sports betting in the United
States.
SEC. 3. UIGEA CLARIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION.
(a) In General- Subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
`Sec. 5368. Voluntary compliance
`(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law--
`(1) except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), no person shall be subject
to criminal liability arising out of--
`(A) the offering, receipt or facilitation of bets or wagers by means
of the Internet;
`(B) financial transactions in connection with or involving the consideration
for, or proceeds of, bets or wagers by means of the Internet;
`(C) the administration, advising, audit, direction, operation, lending,
management, marketing or supplying of a business or services involving
activities or transactions referred to in subparagraph (A) or (B); or
`(D) the banking, brokerage, custody, issuance, placement, promotion,
sale or transfer of shares or proceeds from a business involving activities
or transactions referred to in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C);
`(2) paragraph (1) shall not apply to any person who knowingly--
`(A) offered illegal bets or wagers to, or received bets or wagers from,
any person within the United States by means of the Internet after October
13, 2006;
`(B) in violation of section 1084 of title 18, United States Code, used
the Internet for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of
bets or wagers on any sporting event or sporting contest, or information
assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest,
by any person within the United States; or
`(C) processed or facilitated financial transactions in connection with
or involving the consideration for, or proceeds of, involving activities
or transactions referred to in subparagraph (A) or (B); and
`(3) paragraph (1) shall not apply to conduct that violated sections 1956
or 1957 of title 18, United States Code, by a financial or monetary transaction,
or the transfer or transportation of funds, with the intent to promote unlawful
activity other than the offering, receipt, or facilitation of bets or wagers
by means of the Internet, or to conceal or disguise the nature, location,
source, ownership, or control of the proceeds of unlawful activity other
than the offering, receipt, or facilitation of bets or wagers by means of
the Internet.
`(b) Criminal Liability Defined- For purposes of subsection (a), the term
`criminal liability' includes actions against real or personal property that
arise from or depend upon the allegedly criminal nature of the bet or wager
or of the transmission or receipt of funds in connection with that bet or
wager.'.
(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections for subchapter IV of chapter
53 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item
relating to section 5367 the following new item:
`5368. Voluntary compliance.'.
SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.
No provision of this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed
as clarifying or implying that Internet bets or wagers, other than sports
bets or wagers, which were accepted subsequent to October 13, 2006, are in
violation of Federal law.
END
