Proposed Comments

[DeadMoneyDad]

My proposed comments:


Docket Number Treas-DO-2007-0015

Jennifer J. Johnson
Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20551



Secretary Johnson,

I realize that the Federal Reserve and The Department of the Treasury have been placed in a very bad position by the actions of Congress with the passage of the UIGEA law. This clear from reading between the lines of your comments in the preface of the proposed rule in the comments concerning Docket Number Treas-DO-2007-0015.

As you point out the main issue is one of incomplete law making; “The Act does not spell out which activities are legal and which are illegal, but rather relies on the underlying substantive Federal and State laws.” You further make it clear that you are trying to do the best job you can under the circumstances; “to establish policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit restricted transactions.”

However in my opinion Congress has tasked you with not only an impossible job given the complexity of all the various state laws concerning the legality or illegality of various wagers. While I applaud your goal “to achieve the purposes of the Act as soon as is practical, while also providing designated payment systems and their participants sufficient time to adapt their policies and practices as needed to comply with the regulation.”

However I urge you to abandon this attempt to correct the mistakes of Congress, by trying to craft an unworkable fix with a regulatory scheme so fraught with problems that it will only make matters worse rather than better.

Given that determining the legality or illegality of the source of any funds being transferred is a uniquely governmentally activity that, in my opinion, no matter how well intentioned Legislative or Executive Branches of Government may be in an attempt to “solve a social problem”, that power is solely reserved for the Judicial Branch of our government in our Constitution.

Even if the Justice Department as suggested in the former Attorney General's Testimony of January 12th, 2007 before the Senate Judiciary Committee could as Senator Kyl almost demanded create a perfect list of “offending online gambling sites” its creation let alone practical implementation, if even possible under current law, would be useless.

The mere fact that transaction originated from or was destined to a site where it was possible for a US citizen to potentially violate US or state laws by placing a wager is not proof of any illegality. I could make a deposit from a jurisdiction where if I did indeed gamble the legality might be in question, but I could also deposit and go to a jurisdiction where any such gambling was entirely legal. You point out such jurisdictional concerns in the preface of the rule itself.

Unless the ultimate goal of our government is to have the NSA track and record not only every citizens location when they make a deposit or with draw from a gambling site, but also where they were when the actual “illegal” gambling took place to prove a violation of the UIGEA and set up a special “Gambling Court” to protect the due process rights of US citizens that will arrise from inevitable disputes from both over blocked as well as under blocked potentially illegal gambling deposits to the US banking system, I firmly urge you to suggest to Congress they do their jobs rather than looking to your Agency to fix their problems.

In conclusion I strongly urge you to remove the proposed rule from the docket and join me in sending a letter to Congress to either repeal the UIGEA Law or write legislation that is both Constitutional and practical.

Yours,


D$D<--enjoying this immensely