Less than a week has passed since Senator Wyden proposed the amendment, which would have diverted tax revenues to fund healthcare from Representative Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act.
In a statement to The Hill, Jennifer Hoelzer, Communications Director for Senator Wyden, said the online gambling amendment had been withdrawn because the Senator did not want to introduce another controversial issue to the healthcare debate. “The last thing Senator Wyden wants to do is make it more difficult to expand subsidies for working families by introducing a new contentious issue to the debate,” said Hoelzer.
The proposed amendment had been welcomed by those within the online gaming industry and by a number of US lawmakers including Representative Barney Frank and Jim McDermott, both of whom have proposed legislation that would regulate and tax the industry.