Should Online Gambling be Legal?
Finally a bit of “fresh air” for the Online Gambling Industry - the Congress moves to suspend the Internet Gambling Ban.
The by now well known Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative announced its support for the new legislation named H.R.5767, that would prohibit the Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System from prescribing, proposing or implementing any regulations related to the current ban on Internet gambling.
As required by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, this bill was introduced on April 10th 2008 by Barney Frank and Ron Paul.
Here is what Jeff Sandman SSIGI spokesman said about the difficult situation of Gambling Online:
“As it has most commonly been referred to, the “Frank-Paul bill” would stop the United States government from either developing new plans; or taking any further steps on regulations that would require all of the country’s financial institutions to “block” Internet Gambling based payments. It’s a bold move, but a necessary one, in light of the warnings from the Treasury and Federal Reserve that they did not know how to write regulations to solve the problems created by UIGEA. Further, witnesses representing a broad spectrum of the financial services community unanimously stated that the current ban on Internet gambling is dangerous to the payments system and ineffective in stopping people from using the Internet to play poker, make bets on horses, or engage in other types of wagering.”
Currently the Internet gambling ban creates significant additional burdens for U.S. financial institutions, which raise their voices to say that it is unfair unfair to turn them into the Internet gambling police at a time when their undivided attention should be focused towards the economy.
The Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, that would regulate Internet gambling; will require licensed Internet gambling operators to put in place a number of “safeguards” to protect the public against issues like: underage, compulsive gambling and also to ensure the integrity of financial transactions.
While the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2008 introduced by Jim McDermott would ensure the collection of taxes on regulated Internet gambling activities, according to a tax revenue analysis prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, says that taxation of regulated Internet gambling is expected to generate between $8.7 billion to $42.8 billion in federal revenues over its first 10 years.
The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative is promoting the freedom of individuals to gamble online with the proper safeguards to protect consumers and ensure the integrity of financial transactions. That is one of the reasons why we encourage you to visit www.safeandsecureig.org on this web site you will find the ways to register your support for regulated Internet gambling with the elected representatives.
