American Gaming Association To Introduce Legislation

Earlier this week the President and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA), Frank Fahrenkopf announced that his organization is unhappy with current online gambling regulation proposals and intends to introduce its own bill. The announcement came as Mr. Fahrenkopf gave his keynote speech at the Gaming Executive Summit in Madrid, Spain.

Stating that the AGA disagrees with U.S. House Representative Joe Barton's (R-TX) proposed legislation, Mr. Fahrenkopf said that the association would be introducing a different bill this year.

In the speech, Mr. Fahrenkopf announced several details on the proposed bill, with the federal government having general oversight of the online gambling industry, but hand down regulation and licensing responsibilities to states that have an established history in the gambling industry. Also, states would not be automatically included in this legislation, but would allow each state to pass laws that allow online gambling within their site. The last major detail given was that there would be some penalty for companies that attracted online players while the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was in place.

Mr. Fahrenkopf stated that the AGA's preferred stance is to have legislation passed at the Federal level as opposed to having a variety of laws for each individual state.