uly 28th, 2010 may go down as the day the second Poker Boom officially was kicked off. Not perhaps in the same was as when an accountant named Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event,  but it will definitely rank among them. After seven months, HR 2267 faced a critical vote with the House Finance Committee and passed by a 41 to 22 to 1 margin. The HR 2267 bill, which was pushed hard by Rep. Barney Frank and the Poker Players Alliance has crossed a major hurdle on its way to becoming law despite extreme opposition by chairman Rep. Spencer Bacchus.Rep. Bacchus has publicly argued that the legislation proposed would bring casino gambling into every house in the U.S. and urged his colleagues to not support the bill, even calling for Rep. Frank to withdraw the legislation. Despite his vehement opposition of the legislation, HR 2267 went through to the board and passed by a wide margin. While HR 2267 isn’t 100% out of the woods, it did take a major step towards regulating the Online Gambling industry in the U.S. It will now be sent to the House of Representatives, where should it pass in a majority vote, it will be passed in to the Senate for another vote, before being signed into law by the President. Several amendments were made to HR 2267 with each amendment handled individually and voted upon by the representatives in attendance. The first amendment was brought by Congressman Brad Sherman of California. Online sites that have intentionally broken internet gaming laws cannot get a license to conduct business in the United States. This will affect larger online poker sites such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet who allowed players from the U.S. to play on their site after the UIGEA went into effect. This amendment passed. The second amendment was brought by Congressman Peter King of New York, and prohibits sports betting, excluding horseracing. Basically the intent was to keep sports clean and away from anything that would undermine the integrity of the game. This amendment also passed. The third amendment was brought by Congresswomen Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio, and indicated that the Secretary of the Treasury has the power to prohibit unsolicited emails and advertisements targeted to minors and problem gamblers. This amendment also passed. The fourth amendment was brought by Congressmen Spencer Bachus of Alabama, and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. This amendment will forbid offshore sites that have illegally done business in the US, along with people who have been employed by sites that have conducted business illegally in the US, from getting a license. The intent by Bachus was to include everyone associated with illegally run online gambling sites in a ban. This amendment was contested vigorously by Rep. Frank who said that “a janitor or a restaurant worker employed inside of a brick or mortar casino would not be held responsible for the mishandlings of upper management.” The contention was that the same should hold true for an online company. Rep. Bachus withdrew the bill, then reintroduced it with language that stipulated a ban for those who “knew” they were working at an illegally-run internet site be banned from obtaining a license. The amendment was later voted on by roll-call. The 5th amendment was from Congressman Joe Bacca from California, and allowed Indian Tribes to participate in Internet gambling. Rep. Frank quickly shot down the amendment as it wasn’t relevant to the subject. The 6th amendment was again from Congressman Bacca, to allow states and tribes to opt-in to Internet gambling. Rep. Frank opposed this, and stated that it should be the person’s choice to gamble online, and not relegated to the state that they reside. This amendment was denied by voice vote, but later voted on by roll-call. The 7th amendment was from Congressman John Campbell of California, and provided several criteria. 1) All facilities of licensees that operate and/or accept wagers must be located in the U.S. 2.) States and tribes must have parallel authority. 3) Bettors must be at least 21 years of age. 4) Age and residence of the bettor must be verified. 5) Odds of winning at each game must be posted online. 6) The identities of legal and illegal gambling sites must be verified by the treasury in order for banks to prohibit certain financial transactions. 7) Owners must meet licensing requirements. 8) Sites must provide loss limits for each bettor. This amendment was passed. The 8th amendment was brought by Congressman Sherman again, and provides that States are given one full legislative session to opt out, as opposed to the original 90 day period. The amendment also passed. The 9th amendment was brought again by Congressman John Campbell, and stated that internet sites who advertise towards minors shall have their license revoked. This amendment passed. The 10th amendment was brought by Congressman Melissa Bean of Illinois. It states that the Treasury is required to observe internet sites and provide sanctioned fines and revoke licenses if minors are found gambling. This amendment passed. The 11th amendment was the manager’s amendment, and brought by the majority and minority member managing the debate. It states that bets are to be made with prepaid cards and debit cards only. Bettors will be restricted from using credit cards on internet gambling sites. Also, the House Financial Services Committee will not have jurisdiction on tribal rights. The amendment passed. The 12th amendment was brought by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, and stated that internet sites would be forbidden from allowing people who are delinquent on child support payments from gambling on their sites. This was a major sticking point from states that already imposed such rules from casinos with jackpots. Violating sites would lose their license for failure to comply. This amendment also passed. The 13th and final amendment was brought by Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan, offering State and tribal lotteries an exemption from licensing requirements as they’re already required to do that by their respective states. Thus, the Federal Government need not be involved. The amendment passed as well. Once the passage of the final amendments were through, Rep. Bachus called for a roll call vote , and the opt-in amendment by Rep. Baca was defeated, then Bachus’ amendment was also defeated. Finally, the committee voted on the measure, approving HR 2267 by an overwhelming 41-22 vote. wtf is this about??? I am not from the US but I am kind of worryed :(