LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The U.S. House Financial Services Committee has voted 30-19 to require federal agencies to define unlawful Internet gambling before completing regulations to enforce a ban against it.

Even if the bill doesn't pass this year, it's expected to provide momentum to efforts to roll back an Internet gambling ban next year in a new session of Congress.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the committee chairman and an aggressive foe of the 2006 ban on Internet gambling, said he plans to continue efforts to repeal it.

Among other things, the latest bill would require the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to consult the U.S. attorney general's office in developing a formal process to define unlawful Internet gambling.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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