Concerns about consumer protection showed to be the dominating topic during yesterday's hearing in Washington D.C. on online poker. Supporters however maintained that regulation is needed.

Concerns about player protection and underage gambling turned out to be the dominating topics of debate during yesterday's House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade hearing on online poker.

The hearing was attended by a host of politicians, lawmakers and lobby group representatives, and developed a discussion about the prospects of introducing federally regulated online poker in the U.S.

The subject has been widely treated by politicians and media alike throughout the year, especially following the events of Black Friday.

According to Casino City Times, concerns about player protection were expressed, most notably by Representative Gregg Harper.

"The idea of online gambling, legal or illegal, gives me great concern," said Harper, arguing that accurate player identification is not possible and that this makes the industry vulnerable to fraud.

Harper was however met with the counterarguments from lobby groups Poker Players Alliance and FairPlayUSA, who pointed to new technologies and experiences from other countries as examples of how consumer protection can be achieved.

"It's changing radically and very quickly," said Perry Aftab of FairPlayUSA.

"You can't verify kids, but you can verify adults," he added.

Aftab was backed by PPA chairman Alfonse D'Amato, who expressed his frustration with the current regime, and said that it reminded him of Prohibition.

"We're well behind the rest of the world," said D'Amato.

"If we do nothing, the problems will grow and we will have no opportunity to fix it. This legislation can't protect everybody at every time in every instance. But it can go a long way towards protecting people who have no protection at all right now. It will be imperfect, but a heck of a lot better than what we have now,"

"Testimony heard today and other testimony presented in writing, such as ours, demonstrates that new technology and processes used in ecommerce have been successfully adapted in jurisdictions where Internet gambling is legal, such as Great Britain, France, Italy and provinces in Canada, to keep minors from betting online and prevent illegal activities, such as money laundering and fraud," he added.

The subcommittee will now evaluate the testimonies offered yesterday before reporting to Congress, where two proposals on online gambling are already awaiting further treatment.

Source: Poker.org