America's Two-Faced Approach to Gambling
Gambling People
be the conclusion if one is aware that only two US states actually do
not permit legal gambling - those are Utah and Hawaii. In the whole
rest of the lot of the United States (yes, including Nevada, where Las
Vegas is located) it is legal to gamble. The neon palaces of Las Vegas,
as well as those Indian casinos, located in Indian reservations, all
enjoy immense popularity amongst American citizens, and of course, the
extremely popular state lotteries and sporting events such as dog
racing and more.
However, there is a faction of American Republicans hell bent on
putting a stop to internet gambling. Online gambling is now undoubtedly
the fastest growing gambling industry that permeates to the soils of
America; Americans being the most popular buyers of online gambling.
Their arguments? There are various. According to Robert Goodlatte, the
Republican author of the latest legislation, online gambling sites,
which operate from the Caribbean and other offshore locations, "suck
billions of dollars per year out of the US economy, serve as a vehicle
for money laundering, undermine families and threaten the ability of
states to enact and enforce their own laws".
Robert Goodlatte is obviously ignoring the fact that the same arguments
apply to gambling addicts and their families if they play in a land
casino card room, which is legal and which he is not fighting against.
In addition to this, various online sites have security and information
in place which prohibits gambling by minors. Money Laundering? Well,
though there have been few cases and not enough to brand the online
casino gambling industry as an evil element, about to destroy families.
Online gambling sites actually must pass quite a bit of criteria and be
registered with a variety of Certified Gambling Commissions which
certify and verify these online gaming sites as well as take complaints
from players which protect the interest of the players.
So, what do we have here? Is it only because the US is losing billions
to online casinos registered out of the US where the US is unable to
pull back tax income to go into the war- or other coffers of the
government? We think that it is essentially so. If online gambling
stopped virtually at the borders of this nation and these web casinos
were registered inland and not offshore, then the political figures who
are trying to change legislation will all look the other way when it
comes to gambling addicts, family problems. They obviously want and
expect Americans to spend all their money back into their economy;
approximately 6 Billion US dollars according to present figures, not
accounting for sports betting and state-controlled lotteries. This
figure is expected to double by the year 2010.
According to the Justice Department's interpretation, Americans are
already barred from gambling online by a 1961 law that prohibits
betting over telephone lines. But it is proving extremely difficult to
actually prosecute under this law, and the courts have been divided
over the whether the 1961 law applies to the internet. A proposed
congressional legislation would make this clear by barring US banks
from processing financial transactions related to most forms of online
gambling.
We suspect that should online gambling by American citizens only apply
to casinos registered on American soil, the hard liners against
gambling via the internet web casinos, would be scarcely concerned
about families or morals.