“Legalizing Online Gambling in the U.S.”

While certain U.S. lawmakers have been doing everything in their power to stop or at least slow down the booming online gambling industry, others are eager to see it become legal. As a powerful revenue generator, some believe that legalizing online gambling in their states could even eliminate the need to increase taxes.

Anti-online-gambling lawmakers are facing an uphill battle these days. Determined to keep online gambling illegal in the U.S., these lawmakers are hauling out the old Federal Wire Act of 1961, which prohibited the use of phone lines for placing bets. The problem is, however, that this law preceded Internet technology and was therefore never intended to address the vast and complicated world of the Web; nothing is written about being prohibited from using the Internet to place bets, but that hasn’t stopped certain determined lawmakers from trying to adapt the law, and many efforts have been made to update it. Nevertheless, at this point it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to apply and enforce the Wire Act vis a vis online gambling. Further frustrating the efforts of these U.S. lawmakers to keep online gambling illegal is the recent ruling by the WTO. If U.S. citizens are allowed to use their credit cards to make wagers at domestic casinos, the ruling says, then they should be allowed to do the same at online casinos.

In the meantime, politicians in at least three U.S. states – North Dakota, Illinois, and Georgia – are hoping to see Internet gambling become legal. Jim Kasper, North Dakota State Representative, believes that with the kinds of enormous revenues generated by the online gambling industry the state wouldn’t need to raise taxes. The legislation he’s proposed – permitting online poker to operate legally in his state – has already passed the House.

While online poker is the name of the game for Kasper, lottery tickets are the way to go if Senator John Cullerton of Illinois and Representative Terry Barnard of Georgia have anything to say about it. Their point is that sales of lottery tickets could produce an enormous amount of revenues for their states, and they’ve proposed bills making it legal to sell online lottery tickets to residents who are 18 and over.

As online gambling becomes more and more ubiquitous, everyone seems to want a piece of the action. Britain, which is a much more online-gambling-friendly-nation than the U.S., is eager to start taking overseas online bets from Americans in its land-based casinos, currently numbering 137.