Berkley to the rescue?

Nevada Representative Shelly Berkley has introduced a bill to study, not ban, online gambling. From the LVRJ:

In another effort to roll back an Internet gambling ban, Rep. Shelley Berkley on Thursday introduced a bill calling for a one-year study of online wagering by the National Academy of Sciences.

“One of the advantages of this legislation is that it doesn’t take a side,” she said. “It doesn’t say Internet gambling is good or bad. It says ‘Let’s study the issue.’ ”

But Berkley, D-Nev., acknowledged she wants to repeal the Internet gambling ban approved last year by Congress.

“It’s very difficult to unring a bell once it has rung in Washington,” Berkley said. “But the ban was sneaked onto a port security bill, and the people who voted for it, including myself, were not contemplating a ban on Internet gambling.”

The measure was passed and signed into law in October.

Berkley’s bill comes one week after Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., proposed legislation to repeal the Internet gambling ban and require the Department of Treasury to regulate the $13 billion online wagering industry.

Berkley is a co-sponsor of Frank’s bill and Frank has said Berkley’s bill is “perfectly complementary” to his.

While Frank’s bill has 11 co-sponsors so far, Berkley claims to have 60 co-sponsors, including Frank and Nevada’s two other House members — Reps. Dean Heller and Jon Porter, both R-Nev.

Other Berkley co-sponsors include Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee which is likely to review Berkley’s bill, and Rep. Frank LoBiondo, a New Jersey Republican who represents casinos in Atlantic City.

ReviewJournal.com – Business – Berkley offers bill on study of Web wagers

As I said last year when Representative Porter introduced a similar bill, I think this is long overdue. Honestly, they should have done this study in 1998. Better late than never, I guess. I really hope they take a serious look at the history of gambling prohibition in the U.S. before making any recommendations.

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