Will States Push the Feds to Legalize Online Gambling?
Still, that’s a lot of money for a state. What remains to be seen is how the online poker could be kept within the state’s borders. Opponents of online gambling claim that Indian casinos would start offering online poker if it was approved in the state and, because they’re not subject to the same regulations, they would begin to offer it across state lines. Whether or not this makes any real difference in how people use the Internet for gambling remains to be seen. According to advocates, banning online poker, because of the global nature of the Internet, achieves nothing except for taking away potential revenues from the state.
Offshoring
However tightly regulated their preferred pastime may be, gamblers have proven themselves to be a few steps ahead of government efforts to take away their choice to enjoy a game of online poker. Many online gamblers use offshore online poker establishments to enjoy a few hands from the comfort of their own home. Moving money back and forth between accounts is not difficult and, because these companies are not located in the United States, the restrictive policies of the US government on online gambling do not apply to them.
For advocates of legalizing online poker, this means that the United States and the individual states that make it up are simply cheating themselves of a potentially very useful source of revenue. Online poker is incredibly popular, as are many other forms of online gambling. Congressional advocates such as the retiring Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank have long pushed for Congress to lay off of o
nline gambling and to let people make their own choices about whether or not they want to participate in it. Given that choice, gamblers could potentially generate a lot of much-needed income for states and the federal government.
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