Payments System Protection Act of 2008
Here is a description of the bill:
Bringing Clarity and Finality to Rulemaking on Unlawful Internet Gaming
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Proposed Internet Gaming Rulemaking Imposes Undue Burden, Uncertainty on Financial Institutions
Congress blocked financial institutions from processing payments for “unlawful internet gambling” without defining "unlawful internet gambling," which varies from state to state (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006). As such, financial institutions are uncertain as to which transactions must be blocked
Unfortunately, the proposed rulemaking on this law issued by the Department of Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve does not define what constitutes “unlawful internet gambling” either, leaving financial institutions with the same uncertainty as to which transactions must be blocked, imposing on them the substantial burden of deciding which transactions to block
Pending Legislation Would Bring Certainty, Finality to Unlawful Internet Gambling Rules
In response to the above problem, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and senior committee member Peter King (R-NY) introduced the Payments System Protection Act of 2008 (HR 6870). This legislation:-
Allows the proposed rule’s provision on sports betting to become effective immediately, and
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Provides for an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) to conduct a formal rulemaking to determine the rest of the scope of "unlawful internet gambling."
The measure thus brings finality to the rulemaking on sports betting, where the federal case law is settled. Professional sports league which advocated for a prohibition on betting for sports events, would not encounter any delay in finalizing this part of the proposed rule.
At the same time, granting an ALJ the authority to decide what further internet activities cannot have payments processed by financial institution will bring certainty to the extent of the definition of “unlawful internet gaming. An ALJ, for example, whether games of skill (such as bridge and poker) should have payments blocked.
Under this measure, financial institutions will one uniform standard to apply in evaluating when to block processing of payments for online gaming activities, rather than being left to guess how courts might interpret the definition of unlawful internet gaming.
