Gambling News - May 2005 Edition

"Gambling Law Update"

Senator Kyl's anti-gambling bill expected to fail.

Many attempts by different lawmakers to push through Internet gambling prohibition measures have been made over the past few years. All pf them have met with little success. The United States publicly takes the position that Internet gambling is illegal and uses the 1960s Wire Act, which prohibits the use of phone lines for placing wagers, to prosecute online casino operators. Internet gambling has not only not waned or gone away but it is becoming increasingly popular and acceptable across the U.S.

Recent trends charted by research companies predict that the popularity of the Internet gambling isn’t going to diminish anytime soon either. Poker, which has enjoyed great popularity for some time now and even greater popularity since certain television channels began broadcasting live poker tournaments, has quickly become one of the most popular online casino games and on its own, has fueled the appeal of online gambling.

Online gambling’s growing popularity in the U.S. coupled with the fact that there are more pressing political, social, and economic concerns than Internet gambling, make anti online gambling measures unlikely to succeed. In spite of the lack of support for anti online gambling measures, Senator John Kyl (R-Arizona) is continuing with his plans to introduce the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Kyl’s act is a much more sweeping anti-gambling bill and does not differentiate between online gambling that is illegal and regular and legal gambling activities. In the year 2000, an anti-Internet gambling bill introduced by Representative Jim Leach (R-IA) was finally quashed by special interests seeking exemptions. The failure of Leach’s bill, which included exemptions and still didn’t pass, does not bode well for Kyl’s bill, which contains no exemptions.

Kyl’s Bill contains no exemptions, as do other Internet anti-gambling bills, which makes Kyl’s bill even less likely to pass.

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