Barney Frank, a former congressman who relentlessly fought to legalize and regulate on-line poker within the U.S., handed away Tuesday night time at his residence in Ogunquit, Maine.
The veteran Democratic member of the U.S. Home of Representatives was 86. Frank, who retired in 2013 after greater than three a long time in Congress, is greatest identified for being a gay-rights pioneer and co-authoring the Dodd-Frank Wall Avenue Reform and Client Safety Act in 2010, a response to the late 2000s monetary disaster. He additionally advocated for authorized on-line poker, and to repeal the Illegal Web Playing Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
A Champion for Authorized On-line Poker
Frank, who spoke to media on the 2009 World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) about his pro-online playing stance, was by no means in workplace when authorized on-line poker websites first launched in Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey in 2013. However his efforts whereas a member of Congress actually helped.
The Democrat representing Massachusetts, in 2007, launched laws to ban the UIGEA, a 2006 piece of laws that beforehand made it unlawful to function on-line poker websites in america. He’d later suggest H.R. 2267, the Web Playing Regulation, Client Safety, and Enforcement Act, arguing that poker is a sport of talent.
Frank, a vocal supporter of the as soon as distinguished Poker Gamers Alliance (PPA), felt that legalizing on-line poker would deliver the federal authorities billions in tax income. Throughout his closing time period in workplace, he returned marketing campaign donations from Full Tilt Poker executives following the “Black Friday” scandal that destroyed the web poker trade within the U.S.
Frank’s pro-poker efforts by no means translated into authorized on-line poker whereas he was nonetheless in workplace, and the poker group nonetheless hasn’t totally recovered from Black Friday. However they did pave the way in which for particular person states to license and regulate onliner poker websites.
Outdoors of supporting the poker group, Frank, one of many first overtly homosexual membes of Congress, was a champion and pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights.
Born March 31, 1940 in Bayonne, New Jersey, the late congressman received his first congressional race in 1980, defeating Richard A. Jones, the Republican candidate. He’d go on to win 12 consecutive elections earlier than declining to run once more in 2012.
Frank served quite a few roles within the Home, together with the Chair of the Home Monetary Companies Committee (2007-2011). He handed away from congestive coronary heart failure after spending the previous few months in hospice care at his residence in Maine.
*Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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