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The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are giving U.S. financial institutions an additional six months to comply with regulations designed to ban Internet gambling.
The two agencies said Friday that the new rules, which were to take effect on Dec. 1, would be delayed until June 1, 2010.
A key Democratic opponent of the ban on online gambling praised the action and said it would give Congress time to
overturn a law passed in 2006
when Republicans controlled Congress.
The delayed rules would
curb online gambling
by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), praised Friday's announcement. He is sponsoring legislation that would roll back the 2006 law that bans financial institutions from handling transactions made to and from Internet gambling sites.
"This will give us a chance to act in an unhurried manner on my legislation to undo this regulatory excess by the Bush administration and to undo this ill-advised law," Frank said in a statement.
Frank's legislation would
allow Treasury to license and regulate online gambling companies that service American customers. Frank argues that online gambling should be legal as a matter of personal liberty and that the federal government could collect increased tax revenues if Internet gambling is regulated."
