According to press reports, William Wichterman, a White House aide, and former lobbyist for the National Football League (NFL), is walking point on online gambling restrictions for President Bush. Wichterman works for the White House Office of Public Liaison.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino commented on the media reports. "Wichterman appropriately sought and received clearance from ethics officers to be able to work on this rule. I know our ethics officers to be professionals who know the law and the guidelines inside out," said Perino. 
The gambling rules are being written to implement a 2006 law that banned Internet gambling in the U.S., a development that sent the online gaming industry and its potential revenues overseas.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has led efforts to change the law to tax rather than ban that revenue.  Frank wrote Monday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., claiming the new regulations would “burden the financial services industry at a time of economic crisis and tie the hands of the (incoming) Obama administration."

Though Rep. Frank favors online gambling, it is unclear whether Barack Hussein Obama, as president, would be of the same mind, as Obama favors fostering government-run, collectivist economic solutions, rather than start-up, entrepreneurial firms, like those which populate the Internet and which fueled economic growth around the world since 1994.

The National Football League (NFL) opposes loosening the Internet gambling ban because it blocks competition for the leagues, on which the NFL collects money in royalties for the use of its stats, logos and player information.
According to the office of Rep. Stephen I. Cohen (D-Tenn.), the Republican Congressman wrote to White House counsel Fred Fielding that the “impetus for the rule may have been a particular White House employee who has a clear and obvious conflict of interest.”

Cohen said he had been told that Wichterman “has been a source of considerable political pressure to speed this regulation through to finalization.”
 
There are about 70 days remaining in the Bush administration, before George W. Bush's term expires on Jan. 20, 2009.


© Copyright 2008 Online Slots Place's material. It may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.