Title: Prevention of Deceptive or Child-Targeted Advertising in Violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector

Summary:
Prevention of Deceptive or Child-Targeted Advertising in Violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
This bill requires the Department of the Treasury to submit a report to Congress regarding current internet gambling operations, including those that appear to target children, and their compliance with specified internet gambling laws. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission must submit a report to Congress regarding deceptive advertising related to unlawful internet gambling.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3322 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3322

  To prevent the unlawful use of financial instruments in the United 
 States for online slot machines, lotteries, table games, and similar 
   offerings, including games and applications that are deceptively 
   marketed or designed to be attractive to children, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 13, 2020

  Mr. Cotton introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prevent the unlawful use of financial instruments in the United 
 States for online slot machines, lotteries, table games, and similar 
   offerings, including games and applications that are deceptively 
   marketed or designed to be attractive to children, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Prevention of Deceptive or Child-
Targeted Advertising in Violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling 
Enforcement Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the Sense of Congress that--
            (1) Congress enacted subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 
        31, United States Code, because traditional law enforcement 
        mechanisms proved often inadequate for enforcing gambling 
        prohibitions or regulations on the internet.
            (2) Congress intended subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 
        31, United States Code, to generally prevent the use of 
        financial instruments in the United States for online slot 
        machines, lotteries, table games, and similar offerings.
            (3) The proliferation of smart devices has increased the 
        number of casino and lottery websites offering online gambling 
        websites and mobile applications that are designed to be 
        attractive to children, including by featuring cartoon 
        characters, themes based on children's fairy tales, and similar 
        content, or by including gambling activities disguised as other 
        content.
            (4) The continued development and proliferation of online 
        gambling websites and mobile applications in defiance of 
        Federal law prohibiting such activity necessitates that 
        Congress understand the extent of such attempts to evade the 
        law and the options available to improve enforcement.

SEC. 3. REPORTS.

    (a) Report by the Secretary of the Treasury.--Not later than 180 
days after enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury, in 
consultation with the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal 
Reserve System, shall submit to Congress a report on compliance with 
subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, 
including--
            (1) a summary of the online slot machines, lotteries, table 
        games, and similar offerings that are offered by online casinos 
        and lotteries operating in the United States, including a list 
        of such offerings that feature cartoon characters, themes based 
        on children's fairy tales, or other content that may appear to 
        be targeted toward children;
            (2) an assessment of the means by which online casino and 
        lottery gambling websites or mobile applications receive funds 
        from players for gambling activities in light of the 
        prohibition on the use of financial instruments in the United 
        States for unlawful internet gambling under subchapter IV of 
        chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code; and
            (3) an assessment of the effectiveness of efforts by the 
        Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the 
        Federal Reserve System to ensure compliance with subchapter IV 
        of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, by online slot 
        machines, lotteries, table games, and similar offerings, 
        including steps that the Department of the Treasury and the 
        Board of Governors can take to improve compliance.
    (b) Report by the Federal Trade Commission.--Not later than 180 
days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chairman of the 
Federal Trade Commission (referred to in this subsection as the 
``Commission'') shall provide a report to Congress regarding deceptive 
advertising related to unlawful internet gambling, including--
            (1) an assessment of--
                    (A) the prevalence of both targeted and non-
                targeted advertising for online slot machines, 
                lotteries, table games, and similar offerings that are 
                offered by online casinos and lotteries and--
                            (i) are displayed within mobile 
                        applications and games that are available on 
                        common mobile application webstores in the 
                        United States; and
                            (ii) employ content that is targeted toward 
                        children, such as through the use of cartoon 
                        characters or themes based on children's fairy 
                        tales; and
                    (B) efforts by internet website and mobile 
                application developers to deceptively present unlawful 
                internet gambling opportunities, including online slot 
                machines, lotteries, table games, and similar 
                offerings--
                            (i) as part of non-gambling gameplay or 
                        application use within websites and mobile 
                        applications offered to users in the United 
                        States; and
                            (ii) to users of websites and mobile 
                        applications that are targeted toward or known 
                        to be frequently accessed by children; and
            (2) a summary of the Commission's efforts to prevent 
        deceptive marketing of in-app purchases within mobile 
        applications, including efforts related to the prevention of 
        in-app gambling opportunities that violate subchapter IV of 
        chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, the effectiveness 
        of those efforts, and steps that the Commission can take to 
        improve enforcement.
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