US's legislation and online gambling: the latest.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff helped torpedo Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte's proposed Internet gambling ban years ago in a scheme that came to light just recently.

Now the Republican lawmaker from Roanoke, armed with knowledge about that past lobbying campaign, is fighting back.

Many lawmakers have raced to distance themselves from disgraced lobbyist Abramoff. It appears Goodlatte, in trying to resurrect his anti-Internet gambling bill, wouldn't mind making Abramoff a poster boy for scandal. When Goodlatte announced he was re-introducing his bill Thursday, a prominent backer appealed for the House to shake Abramoff's taint by passing it.

"Passing this bill will send a clear signal that the era of Jack Abramoff's influence on the U.S. House is over," Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., told reporters. Shadegg ran unsuccessfully for House majority leader on a reform platform last month.

Goodlatte said Internet gambling is a $12 billion-a-year industry.

"Online gambling is wildly popular and booming," Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th and a supporter of Goodlatte's bill, wrote in a letter to President Bush last year.

More than 1.8 million people play poker for cash on the Internet each month, Wolf wrote, generating $2.2 billion in gross revenue annually for the gambling industry.

In 2000, the House defeated an earlier version of Goodlatte's bill, although it won support from more than a majority of lawmakers. It was taken up on an expedited procedure requiring a two-thirds majority to pass.

Only last year did it become known from published news reports that Abramoff, representing a small Connecticut-based gambling services company, had arranged a major campaign against Goodlatte's bill and even enlisted some anti-gambling conservatives.

A senior aide to then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had helped Abramoff fight Goodlatte's bill, The Washington Post reported last fall. When Abramoff pleaded guilty last month in an influence-peddling scandal, the plea agreement detailed favors given to the aide.

"I was re-energized" after the exposure of Abramoff's lobbying drive, Goodlatte said yesterday.

He said he knew in 2000 that gambling interests were trying to sink the bill and that lawmakers were being lied to, but didn't know about Abramoff's role, he said.

"The efforts of Jack Abramoff and those on his behalf were largely responsible for widespread disinformation about this legislation," Goodlatte said at a news conference.

On a list of 115 bill co-sponsors was DeLay, whose ties to Abramoff have come under federal scrutiny. In 2000, DeLay opposed Goodlatte's bill.

DeLay rose to House majority leader. When presented with a money-laundering indictment in Texas last year, he stepped down from that post. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, co-chairs the Congressional Internet Caucus with Goodlatte and was the lead Democrat joining in introducing the bill yesterday. It is not clear under federal law whether Internet gambling is illegal, Boucher said, so a rewrite of the federal Wire Act is needed to account for new technologies.

The article by Peter Hardin, Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Washington Date Line via Media General News Service.