Gambling News - May 2005 Edition

"Online Gambling - The Next US-EU Trade Argument"

Britain heading in the opposite direction to the US as far as online gambling is concerned.

Britain is hoping to profit from the billions exchanging hands in the online gambling industry and is heading exactly in the opposite direction to U.S. Britain is planning to make online gambling legal. The U.S. government is holding its position and seems determined to maintain its policy that Internet gambling is illegal.

The steps being taken in Britain to legalize online gambling is sure to anger the U.S. who maintains that online casino businesses are ripe for money laundering schemes. The British counter this argument by pointing out that that is the exact reason for legalizing the industry. They claim that legalization will allow regulation and control of the industry and reduce its appeal to criminal organizations.

The U.S. is not the only country that might have a problem with Britain’s position on online gambling, as other European countries are also opposed to the legalization of online gambling. In some countries in Europe, casinos are state managed, meaning that the government has a financial stake in the domestic casinos. With the legalization of internet gambling, money that might otherwise be spent at domestic land-based casinos will be diverted to online casinos.

Millions of Europeans and Americans are already gambling online. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 20 million Americans place wagers over the Internet on anything from sports books, to poker, to bingo.

So it really doesn’t seem to make much difference whether online gambling is legalized or not, the gambling will continue!

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