WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is moving in its last weeks to finalize regulations to enforce a controversial law that seeks to block Internet gambling. The move is drawing hot protests from Democratic lawmakers and supporters of online betting.
The Financial Services Committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has asked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to postpone the regulation, which was reviewed by the White House budget office last week, usually a final step before publication in the Federal Register.
At issue is a law Congress passed hastily in 2006 that sought to curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers.
The result has been a cascade of disputes because the law didn’t offer a clear definition of Internet gambling, instead referring to existing federal and state laws, which themselves provoke differing interpretations.
Banks, credit unions and others have protested about being put in the position of enforcing an unclear law complicated by the difficulty of determining where payments are going and the fact that online betting businesses can disguise themselves with relative ease.
