A Bumpy Road Persists for Online Gambling

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A Bumpy Road Persists for Online GamblingIn 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice determined that the Federal Wire Act does not preclude states from adopting online gambling. And it didn’t take long for states to capitalize.

Since 2013, Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey have all tested and implemented forms of online gambling, as well as a multitude of states that allow Lotto tickets to be purchased online.

On top of that, many states are doing the research and groundwork required to implement their own form of online gambling. The primary benefit being that there is great earnings potential for each state through added tax revenues.

However, all has not been smooth sailing for this nascent industry. In addition to battling a large segment of voters still opposed to online gambling, every state that implements an online gambling program must take great precautions to ensure that they are responsibly regulating their software, policies, and procedures.

In a recent move, the National Conference of State Legislatures –a bipartisan group – began protesting a plan in Congress to ban online gambling. They believe the decision should be left in the hands of the individual state.

“This is the way it should work, each state making the decision that is best suited to the desires of its residents and not through a congressional mandate,” the state lawmakers wrote.

The group is protesting a bill introduced in early April by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) that is geared towards overturning states individual decisions to allow for online gambling. Currently the Wire Act only bans online sports betting, but Graham and Chaffetz want to ban the practice of online gambling altogether.

Of course, you can ban it, but that doesn’t mean you will stop it. That’s the what James J. Murren, the CEO of MGM Resorts International, said earlier this year when discussing a potential federal ban on online gambling in the United States.

Murren appears to be among those who are of the mindset that gamblers will still find ways to gamble online illegally regardless of what Congress does.

“What I believe is in the best interest of Americans is to regulate, to get rid of the bad actors, to force them out of business,” Murren observed at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ spring conference.

According to Cronkite News Online, Murren asserted his view that regulating Internet gambling is a “states’-rights issue.”

Noting that his company has 62,000 employees, he said regulating rather than banning Internet gambling would mean that companies with a lot to lose if they act unethically would be in the market.

“Those are the kind of operators that should be the controls of this type of technology and this kind of gaming,” Murren is quoted in the same report.

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