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Hope for Online Gambling's Future?

As many of you no doubt are aware, the US Justice Department has been on a multi-year campaign to demonize and criminalize online gaming by targeting the owners of gaming sites and the owners of the financial intermediaries that handle the money transferred between the bettors and the gambling sites. First the Department convinced Visa and Mastercard not to handle transactions, but other services, such as Paypal popped up. Paypal has since refused to handle such transaction on pain of prosecution from the Feds.

With the successful prosecution of Neteller PLC and its two founders, who owned beachfront houses in Malibu forfeited to the government to settle the case, it appeared that bettors might have difficulty transferring money. Other services sprang up and the industry moves on unabated by the hypocritical stance taken by the Department of Justice and Congress. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth of Kentucky got into the act, in a misguided attempt to "protect" its horse industry.

The best hope in years to legalize online gaming and end the hypocrisy that favors horse racing and punishes poker and betting on professional sports, has presented itself with the election of a new and more significant Democratic majority in Congress. Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, sponsored a bill in the last session which would license online gaming sites. The bill was referred to his committee which would augur well for it success in at least the House in the upcoming new Congress. The difficulty in the past has been, in part, opposition from conservative Republican legislators opposed to all forms of gambling. The professional sports leagues are all opposed to legalizing gambling; the NFL in particular, which of course owes much of its popularity to gambling.

The debate over online gaming should only intensify in the days and weeks ahead. Expect millions of dollars to be spent lobbying both sides of this issue before Congress. In the past, the prevention of the legalization of online gaming was one of the issues on which the infamous Jack Abramoff showered key Congressional figures with goodies, all on behalf of casino owning Native American tribes. The NFL also spent millions in opposition. The online casinos have plenty of money of their own and will spend freely if the bill surfaces with a chance at passage. If you use one of the thousands of online casinos, such as our friends as Spin32 Poker, call or write your Congressman and Senator. Make your voice heard - it's important. Let's end the hypocrisy that allows for land based casinos and online horse race betting but not online casinos and sports books.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on December 02, 2008 (boomark / email).