Response from Sen. Durbin

[shighley3205]

Sort of a "I oppose online gambling, but we can't impose unrealistic burdens on Financial Institutions", I am still yet to hear back from Obama




Dear Mr. xxxxx:

Thank you for your message regarding Internet gambling and H.R. 4411, the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2005. I appreciate hearing
from you on this issue.

The debate over Internet gambling has generated strong public interest.
Most types of Internet gambling operations are prohibited under federal
law, yet many Internet gambling operations are based in foreign countries
and are beyond the jurisdiction of American enforcement agencies.
Overall, Americans spend roughly $4 billion to $6 billion a year on
Internet gambling. Because of the largely unregulated nature of this
business, Internet gambling sites often fail to block access to gambling
by children and often lack effective safeguards against fraud. Further,
Internet gambling can be addictive, and this addiction has had a harmful
effect on some individuals and communities.

H.R. 4411 would address Internet gambling by prohibiting those who are in
the business of gambling from knowingly accepting credit cards, checks,
electronic fund transfers or similar financial instruments in connection
with unlawful Internet gambling. The bill would impose fines and/or
prison sentences on violators. The bill also requires the Secretary of
the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board to issue regulations directing
banks and other financial transaction providers to adopt practices to
enable them to identify and prevent restricted transactions that support
Internet gambling.

I agree that stronger steps should be taken to prevent unlawful Internet
gambling. As we craft laws and regulations that address this problem, we
must work with law-abiding financial transaction providers to ensure that
we do not impose unrealistic or overly burdensome requirements on those
providers.

H.R. 4411 passed the House of Representatives on July 11, 2006. The
Senate Majority Leader has the discretion to bring this bill before the
full Senate for consideration at a time of his choosing. I will keep your
concerns in mind in case H.R. 4411 or related legislation is debated on
the Senate floor.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to stay in touch.

Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

[downtown]

I got the exact same canned (and not exactly prompt, may I add) response today. Their staffer must have just gotten around to it. What a crap response that doesn't address anything I wrote. The message isn't even clear on where he stands in the end.

Dare I say typical?

I also haven't heard anything from Obama. I'm not holding my breath.

[Chicago]

Durbin is a [censored] anyways. I hate the automated responses they are almost as bad as Party Poker customer service. I wouldn't be suprised if these senators hire people over in Gibraltor to respond. Sorry for getting so negative but this man doesn't care what we want, its what big money wants and that is how he responds. I've had the fortunate opportunity to have two converasions with him over the past few years and well needless to say I wasn't impressed.

I'm sure you are going to get the same response from Barack but at least I can say that I respect him as a man and a Senator more then this DurbinDikshit. Obama 2012 hopefully we will still have poker then.

All the letters in the world aren't going to change their views on this topic.

Chicago

[jj_frap]

Durbin is one of the few Democrats consistently promoting an angenda of social liberalism, secularism, and civil libertarianism.

[forshure]

[ QUOTE ]
Because of the largely unregulated nature of this
business, Internet gambling sites often fail to block access to gambling by children and often lack effective safeguards against fraud.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like how he explains the problem as being an unregulated business and then never addresses regulation.

[ QUOTE ]
we must work with law-abiding financial transaction providers to ensure that we do not impose unrealistic or overly burdensome requirements on those providers.

[/ QUOTE ]
If its regulated they wont have undo burdens. I just dont understand why they dont mention regulating it especially considering +tax $$s would be very helpful and address the fact that the problems lie in it being unregulated. It just feels so good to know our government is run so illogically and backwards, or at least by ignoring obvious solutions and searching for the most difficult and restrictive ones.