Reps. Frank, Paul (among others) send letter to Treasury on UIGEA regs

[The Buzz]

Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Ron Paul (R-Texas), Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Pete King (R-N.Y.) have sent a letter to US Treasury officials advising them to spend no more time or resources drafting regulations to enforce the UIGEA.

The lawmakers, who said they are determined to overturn the law, highlighted issues they said are more important priorities for the nation's financial institutions, such as the home mortgage crisis.

"We believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency resources to this Sisyphean task, especially as we intend to vigorously pursue legislation to prevent the implementation of these regulations," the members said.

The 2006 law fails to define the term "unlawful Internet gambling," leaving it up to banks and financial institutions to reconcile the conflicting state and federal laws and court decisions when determining whether to process a transaction, the members wrote. Some of the information needed to make the determination could be unavailable to banks because customers or financial institutions in foreign countries may be unlikely to provide it.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/...008-04-22.html

[The Buzz]

More on this from the Las Vegas Review Journal ...

http://www.lvrj.com/business/18036969.html

[The Buzz]

Good editorial on Chairman Frank's efforts to get treasury officials to ignore the law in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/18252409.html