The Tribune Editorial Board

After some heated debate between Congressmen, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, to make most types of online gambling illegal.

The bill, which passed 317-93, would amend the Federal Wire Act to ban U.S. financial institutions from processing any deposits or withdrawals via credit cards with Internet gambling sites.

This bill originally was introduced six years ago, but failed to pass, thanks to a little-known lobbyist at the time named Jack Abramoff.

For the most part, regulation of gambling in the U.S. has been entirely a states’ rights issue. But with the advent of the Internet and online gambling sites, confusion about the issue has reigned.

The original wire act in 1961 referred only to bets placed over telephone; this version aims to update that to include bets placed over the Internet. It provides for penalties of up to five years imprisonment for any violations of the act.

Despite the massive support, the bill itself may actually do very little to curb online gambling by U.S. citizens. The Internet always has been — and probably always will be — a difficult protocol to regulate.

As a matter of fact, shares of Internet gaming companies Sportingbet and PartyGaming’s actually increased after the House overwhelmingly passed the legislation — possibly because of the increased rhetoric that the bill would die a certain death in the Senate.

Since human beings have been able to walk, there has been some type of gambling in the world. And an Internet prohibition is probably not going to do anything to change that.

Furthermore, instead of dancing around the issue by banning the use of credit cards online, Congress should come right out and either attempt to ban online gambling period, or stop legislating the Internet altogether.

It has worked well so far as a state’s rights issue and would probably continue to do so in the future.