Following Barney Frank's declaration on April 2, Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Pete King (R-NY) sent a letter Tuesday reminding the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of the ineffectiveness of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

The UIGEA, introduced into a climate of already outlawed US online gambling, sought to ban credit card companies and others from processing cash flow from the US into (and ideally out of) offshore-based Internet gaming sites.

The House Financial Service Committee's (HFSC) Bill currently has 48 co-sponsors fighting against the ban. Frank also announced that "[The ban is] one of the stupidest things" he has ever seen. His battle seems to be gaining much attention within congress and is pulling many powerful aids in favor of his cause.

The Letter
The Hill, which reports of legislative issues in Washington, DC, reported that the letters explain that "The regulations, like the underlying legislation, fail to define the term 'unlawful Internet gambling,' leaving it to each financial institution to reconcile conflicting state and federal laws, court decisions and inconsistent Department of Justice interpretations when determining whether to process a transaction."

The representatives warned the Treasury Secretary not to pursue any further actions toward the UIGEA: "We believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency resources to this Sisyphean task, especially as we intend to vigorously pursue legislation to prevent the implementation of these regulations."

The letter, which was intended to stop all actions in favor of the ban, ends with a nice request of readers to become co-sponsors preventing UIGEA regulations of becoming the norm.