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A week ago I mentioned the upcoming vote on a resolution that many people thought would help the cause of online gamblers. Unfortunately, after being debated in Committee, the final vote tally was 32-32. For votes that occur in Committee, a tie vote counts as a defeat for the resolution.

There are other bills which bear watching, among them H.R. 5523. Proponents of allowing people to decide for themselves whether or not to gamble online can only be hopeful that the fight will continue on in the House of Representatives and that a good bill which respects the freedoms of Americans will get passed and turned into law.

New legislation will be voted on tomorrow in the US House Committee on Financial Services concerning the future of online gambling. H.R. 5767 was introduced by Representative Barney Frank and initially co-sponsored by Representative Ron Paul. It now has 19 additional co-sponsors, and has been gaining support since it was introduced.

The official title of the resolution is The Payments System Protection Act, and it is designed to:

To prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation under subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, and for other purposes.

The Committee is chaired by Barney Frank and the resolution is supported mainly by Democrats, who currently have a six seat majority on the Committee. However, the ranking Republican, Spencer Bachus, is on record as being very much against any legalization or regulation of Internet gambling.

Should the resolution pass in Committee, it's next step on the path to becoming law will be a vote by the full House of Representatives.