Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has signed on to be a cosponsor of Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act. The IGREA is a response to the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act, which bans financial institutions from processing payments to online gambling companies. The IGREA is attempting to allow online gambling companies to operate legally in the United States, but under regulation, with online gambling companies required to have a license to operate in the U.S.
Rep. Miller is now the forty-sixth cosponsor of the bill, and is the ninth cosponsor to hail from California. Miller has been in Congress since 1975, representing California’s seventh congressional district. George Miller is currently the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
The IGREA is not the only gambling bill currently going through congress, as their is currently another bill in the house similar in nature to the IGREA, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA). There is also a bill introduced whose intent is to exclude poker from the UIGEA because it is a game of skill, as well as a bill whose intent is to conduct a study to see what the U.S. should do with online gambling. However, the IGREA is the most well-known of the online gambling bills, has collected the most cosponsors, and seems the most likeliest to become law.