A Texas Lawmaker introduced a bill on Monday that, if passed, would seemingly clarify what type of online activities the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) would be able to eliminate. Republican Pete Sessions introduced the bill, H.R. 6663, aka the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification and Implementation Act of 2008, on July 30–four days after his colleagues sent a letter to the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to clarify what “online gambling” entailed.

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have been given the daunting task of writing the rules and regulations that the banks will have to follow once the act is passed.  This has been near impossible in the past with the lack of clarity in the law.

Sessions’ bill appears a victory for online poker, as the bill almost exclusively singles out sports betting. If passed, it would leave NO DOUBT that accepting any wagers in regards to sports bets is illegal. However, no such provision is made for poker.  According to H.R. 6663, “No provision of this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed as clarifying or implying that Internet bets or wagers, other than sports bets or wagers, which were accepted subsequent to October 13, 2006, are in violation of Federal law.”

Sessions noted that his opposition to sports betting in particular has to do with the likelihood of corruption in amateur and professional sports that is associated the sports betting and that virtually all past federal prosecutions dealing with gambling have had to do with sports betting.

The Treasury and Reserve Board are still in the process of revising the UIGEA rules it introduced last fall. As mentioned, officials admitted that this has been a difficult task due to the immense amount of gray area created by most internet gambling as well as the lack of case history pertaining to it. Without these rules, the UIGEA cannot be used to stop banking transactions used for unlawful Internet gambling. Its all about precedents baby, and their aint been none yet!