The Legal Battle for Online Gambling in America

Gambling has been one of America’s favorite pastimes since the early days of saloon poker games and horse racing. “Gambling is in America’s blood,” claimed one anonymous woman as I breeched the topic of the recent attack on online gambling by the Senate and House of Representatives. In the early days of the Internet, gambling sites took off and sported a modest income. Today, online gambling is raking in big bucks, with over 6 billion dollars in bets placed by approximately 12 million Americans in 2005. At least half of the world’s online gamblers are believed to live in America. You may think that astonishing numbers such as these would have politicians embracing this new market, for its unlimited potential and popularity. Just the opposite seems to be occurring. In late September of 2006, congress placed a ban on banks making payouts to online gambling services. President George Bush may soon sign the online gambling bill, which was tacked onto legislation strengthening port security, into law.

The fact that the government, which supports state run lotteries, is moving against online gambling is nothing less than hypocrisy. Take into consideration the number of casino’s, horse tracks and dog tracks in the country who are backed fully by their state Senators. These embraced forms of gambling bring in big taxable dollars, not to mention the campaign contributions from the offline gambling giants. Because online gambling is illegal in the United States these online gambling sites are not taxable for their income nor are the gamblers who visit these sites. The real reason that congress is moving against online gambling has nothing to do with their moral or other obligations they feel to protect the compulsive over gambler, it is simply because these sites drive the gamblers away from offline casino’s and race tracks and into their computer rooms, by offering higher payouts, therefore lowering the taxed income from the embraced gambling forums.