• US politicians foiled in effort to ban web gaming

September 16, 2005 - Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona suffered a setback yesterday in his attempt to scupper the booming internet gambling industry in the US. The news sent shares soaring in the London-listed internet poker groups PartyGaming and Sportingbet, the majority of whose customers come from the US. Mr Kyl failed in an attempt to attach his proposed legislation against internet gaming to a larger bill on funding for the US governments of commerce and justice. The move would have fast-tracked Mr Kyl's bill and allowed it to avoid protracted debate by Congress sub-committees. Instead, the gambling bill reached an abrupt end when senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland objected to it being included in the Commerce, Justice State appropriations bill. The development is the latest blow for Mr Kyl, who has been trying to pass laws to stop the spread of internet betting every year for the past seven years. His law would prevent credit card companies and banks from co-operating with internet gambling companies. While there is broad political support for a clampdown on online gaming in the US, where the practice is technically illegal, there are several powerful groups in the gambling industry which do not want to see their interests hurt. One faction that wants an exemption from the legislation is the Native American community, which runs some of the largest casinos. Their land is not subject to federal law and their gambling businesses are free of many of the taxes paid by competitors.The horseracing betting industry also wants a waiver, as do states with large gambling industries, such as New Jersey, home to Atlantic City, and Las Vegas. They will push for exemptions if other factions get special treatment. The collapse of Mr Kyl's latest attempt brought cheer to investors in the sector. Shares in PartyGaming rose 5 per cent to 104.75p - still 12.25p below its issue price. Sportingbet shares closed up 11 per cent at 319.5p. Sportingbet's price move came despite news from the US that a small rival online gaming business had launched a lawsuit against it. RotoPlay alleged yesterday that Sportingbet has copied a number of its games and was suing for copyright infringement.

> Read the full story here Source: News.independent.co.uk

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