Retiring lawmaker will continue Internet gaming push
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Barney Frank, whose long House career is coming to an end, said Tuesday he was optimistic Congress will approve one of his signature issues and allow people to gamble over the Internet.
Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who announced this week he was not running for re-election in 2012, said online gambling will remain an important matter in the year remaining in his congressional career.
Ever since the Internet came to relevance about halfway through his 30 years in office, Frank has argued that people should be allowed personal freedom unencumbered by the government to use the Web as they see fit, if even to place wagers on games of chance.
At a wide-ranging news conference Tuesday, Frank said he would continue to promote gaming legislation, and he saw an opening for success because Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the influential Senate majority leader, also has taken up the issue.
"I think there is a good chance that something will happen," said Frank, who does not gamble. "It is an important issue to me, and I intend to work on it.
"I think personal freedom is very important," Frank said. "I don't understand why I should tell somebody that he or she can't gamble."
Frank became a hero to gamblers when he advanced legislation to legalize and regulate Internet gaming as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. He led the panel from 2007 until this year, when Republicans captured the House majority and installed gaming critic Spencer Bachus of Alabama as the new chairman.
An online gaming bill passed from Frank's committee in July 2010 but died at the end of the year.
Action on gaming since has shifted to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Frank has reintroduced an online gambling bill with Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., but also is supporting less sweeping legislation by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, that would legalize online poker.
Frank's advocacy of Internet gambling "helped build the foundation for the online poker legislative proposals under consideration today," said John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance.
