The American Gaming Association, a trade group representing the casino industry in the United States, spent $1.7 million in 2007 lobbying the Federal Government on online gambling legislation.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the trade group opposes legislative proposals that would pre-empt state authority to regulate gambling. It spent $800,000 lobbying in the second half of the year alone, according to a disclosure form posted online last week by the Senate's public records office.

The American Gaming Association supports legislation that would fund a Federal study on the impact of online gambling and has remained neutral on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed by Congress in October of 2006 that attempts to crack down on Internet gambling by banning the use of credit cards to pay for online bets.