The Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, whether acting jointly or separately, may not propose, prescribe, or implement any regulation under subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, or otherwise give effect to such subchapter or any such regulation, including the proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on October 4, 2007, except to the extent as any such regulation pertains to wagering of the type that is prohibited (as of the date of the enactment of this Act) under chapter 178 of title 28, United States Code (relating to professional and amateur sports protection) or except as provided in section 3.

The key part is where it says, "except to the extent as any such regulation pertains to wagering of the type that is prohibited (as of the date of the enactment of this Act) under chapter 178 of title 28, United States Code (relating to professional and amateur sports protection)".

Since the ancient Wire Act has been used successfully a number of times to prosecute online gambling companies in America, this bill will not be attempting to change the staus of online sports gambling.

This is kinda interesting. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad idea.

First of all, it makes perfect sense. Why bother having a debate about sports gambling's legality when it is already considered illegal and many opponents have strong feeling against it? Especially when your primary concern is trying to find a way to legalize online poker.

But if this bill passes, it won't change a thing. In fact, if the goal of this bill is to take the burden off the financial industry from having be the police deciding which transactions are legal and which are not, well, this bill will only make the situation worse.

How is anybody going to figure out whether a transaction coming from an online gambling company was the result of poker, sports, horses, or casino? It would be a mess.

Now, you could say that this bill sets up the possibility of "poker only" online gambling sites to exist and serve the market.

Sure, but then what do you do about companies such as Sportingbet? They own Paradise Poker, as well as an online sportsbook and casino. How do you allow only the transactions coming from one part of Sportingbet, but not the other?

So, while I look forward to watching the ridiculous debate that will be taking place this afternoon, starting at 1 PM ET, I'm not sure if anything tangible will be accomplished.

That being said, the more often that we can get politician debating the unworkability of the UIGEA, the better.

So go for it, guys. Talk about it. Let America know exactly how stupid and unenforcable the UIGEA really is. Let America know exactly how much revenue is being lost through this ridiculous government policy of prohibition.