Article by JoeAdams

Early this month, three Republicans in the United States House of Representatives are quite disappointed with the efforts of the Senate to restructure laws regarding American online gambling before this year’s Congressional adjournment. They are objecting to what they call a “secretive, closed-door, undemocratic” effort, which are working to regulate and legalize online casino gambling.

It was Mr. Barney Frank who led the act to legalize the activity. A bill he authored passed a House Subcommittee over the summer but had gotten bogged down due to more pressing issues, including the Elections campaign process. Along with him were Representatives Spencer Bachus, an ardent opponent for legalized online gambling, Dave Camp and Lamar Smith. They were the three congressmen who were responsible for overseeing internet gambling starting in January, when Republicans assume control of the House, and claim that the Senate may attempt to attach a pro-gambling measure to “must-pass” legislation in the current lame-duck session of Congress.

These representatives also sent a letter last December 1 to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. They strongly criticized, “Creating a federal right to gamble that has never existed in our country’s history and imposing an unprecedented new tax regime on such activity require careful deliberation, not back-room deals”. Barney Frank’s law would only apply to legalizing and licensing online poker businesses. “We also are concerned that this new rush to embrace Internet casino gambling might be partially motivated by one of the gravest sins that afflicts this Congress: desperation for more tax dollars to pay for ever-increasing federal spending,” the three lawmakers said in the letter.

“Congress should not take advantage of the young, the weak and the vulnerable in the name of new revenues.” “This became a controversial legislation when it was followed by another bill and it would be “a secretive, closed-door, undemocratic process,” they added.

For the recent years, online gambling has been the main topic in every debates conducted within the Congress. Proponents had realized how important it is to regulate online poker sites in the U.S because it would lead to billions of American dollars being collected as federal tax revenue. This money is currently leaking out of the US and into foreign gambling revenues. In addition, U.S. consumers who enjoy these sites forfeit the protections of U.S. consumer laws.

While those who are disapproving of the action ignored the current availability and ease of access to existing internet gambling sites already servicing Americans, contend that clearly legalizing and regulating the industry would somehow lead United States citizens into making bad fiscal decisions. Another controversial argument was raised, and this time it’s all about their childing – arguing that children may be able to access these sites and be tempted to gamble themselves.

Last July, a bill was passed by a House committee that could potentially legalize online gambling sites in the United States that are licensed by the Treasury Department. Currently this bill has not been passed by the full House or the Senate, and would also need to be signed by the President in order to become law.

About the Author

Joe Adams wrote a 469 words article related to online casino games, bonuses, promotions, news, updates and trivia.

Article by Arabella Cowart

Over and over again, internet gambling bills are being defeated here in the U.S. This just shows that open online gambling and online poker in America are still a ways off. The country has always been fairly strict about gambling laws and regulations, but seems to give a little bit here and there. The only way to really boost the online gambling industry is to consider the pros and cons of having it legalized here in the country. Here is a list of some of the pros and cons of having online poker legalized in the United States.

Legalized online gambling actually offers some benefits to gamblers, gambling mediums, as well as the government. To start out, we will talk about how it affects the gamblers. Online gambling can be a risky business for gamblers as many times they will win big but never receive a check. There are a lot of scam artists out there taking advantage of gamers. Legalized gambling will not do away with this fact, but it can help you to find better and more secure sites. You could look for sites that are licensed with the state and hopefully stay from any type of fraud. These licensed sites would provide reliable and honest sites for online poker and sports betting. This will also help gamblers who live in states that do not currently allow gambling. There are people in these states that get online to play a few hands of online poker and are considered felons. This would open up the industry to a lot more people who enjoy the rush of it.

Gambling websites gain a lot because they can retain large financial institutions such as VISA and MasterCard who just dropped out of all online gambling sites here in the U.S. Gambling websites would not have to be worried about being involved in illegal actions and can work to improve the site for customers and turning over a profit. This would also free up time for the Government to attack other illegal acts instead of just gambling. Not only that, the government would profit from revenues generated from the online poker sites.

The cons include those people who would hate to see gambling overrun the country. There are many conservatives who analyze the addictive qualities of gambling and find the riskiness of it an unhealthy practice for Americans. Also, there are a lot of sites that would rather stay out of country and find under-the-table forms of transactions in order to avoid taxes on their earnings in the U.S. These few hangups probably won’t come into consideration for a while, however, since the U.S. is still a long ways off of getting to that point.

About the Author

Arabella Cowart writes reviews on various sporting events including the online betting websites. In this piece of write up he highlights on online gambling,legalized gambling and online poker. He takes the readers thought the memory lanes of the past and made them look back at the last Triple Crown winner.

The lobbying efforts to get Online Poker legalized in the country are only getting stronger. Poker lobbyists are backed by the multi-million dollar offshore gambling companies which are based in Antigua, Malta and other foreign sanctuaries. The lobbying efforts have been successful to some extent with the Obama administration agreeing to delay the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) till June 2010. This has given some reprieve to online gaming operators who argue that if gaming is regularized in the United States it could generate billions of dollars of tax for the Administration. However not all are convinced. Opponents argue that online gambling would increase crime rate, threaten children and increase the overall percentage of Americans addicted to gambling. Some of the major opponents are National Football League, Focus on the Family and Republican Senators like Jon Kyl from Arizona.

The primary support for legalizing online gambling are from Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.) and other Democrats who are leaving no stone unturned to legalize online gambling in the United States. Till this time online gaming lobbyists have spent more than $4 million in lobbying efforts to convince lawmakers that prohibition of online gaming is not a great idea. Other supporters include former Republican senator Alfonse M. D’Amato (N.Y.), chairman of the Poker Players Alliance who is the Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance. The Poker Players Alliance has 1.2 million members and funded by the Interactive Gaming Council, a Canada-based trade group for offshore gambling firms. John Papas, Executive Director of the Poker Players Alliance feels that prohibition is not going to succeed in any of the objectives for which it is intended. Another strong supporter of online gambling is Richard A. Gephardt whose firm is lobbying for PokerStars, a large poker gambling firm based in the Isle of Man.

The opposition to online gaming is also very vociferous and strong. It includes the four major US sports leagues, religious groups and some casinos. Their argument states that online gambling and poker will take gambling right into the living rooms of Americans which is a dangerous proposition. It is fair as long as gambling is confined to ‘brick and mortar’ casinos or a lottery store. In US online gambling is illegal under a 1961 law which was focused on bookies using telephone lines for taking bets. The UIGEA is aimed to iron out any ambiguities that are present with Internet gambling. The new law will prevent banks from accepting credit card payments, checks or any other form of electronic payment related to online gambling.   However, the hard lobbying by Poker Alliance and even the financial institutions has put it on hold till June ’10. Though the Obama administration is officially neutral on the issue, it needs to be seen which direction the boat sails after June.

Ok, so he is not president, YET… He likely will be as he is currently leading in the polls by over 10 % with a 6% +- sample error. This information coming from polls all over the media industry, even the Republican ones. Another major contributing factor that will give him and the Democratic Party the all time favored seat of power is that the economy has been in its worse shape since the 1929 depression. The credit crisis has hit so hard, that even former FED chair Alan Greenspan has come out to say he was wrong about certain maneuvers that were taken place during his latest term as FED chair. Major corporations are cutting jobs, others have gone bankrupt, countries such as Argentina and other second world countries have called for help to the International Monetary Fund. Goldman Sachs, the premier investment banking firm in the world has declared it will cut its workforce. And lastly, chartists and speculators claim the DOW might fall below 5,000 over the course of the next year leaving all value behind.

To put it simply, the world is REALLY becoming a difficult place to live as companies and governments struggle to make ends meet all across the board. As far as the online gambling industry is concerned, it was legal for its citizens to play and it was also legal to advertise online.  This until 2004, when a bill called the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Act) was passed by Congress, therefore making the whole industry illegal. After this took place, many major corporations went broke, and a lot lost a high percentage of income as US citizens were simply not allowed to play and gamble online. Numerous politicians argued the case as the industry would indeed earn billions for the government if properly regulated the industry, but the bills that were recently put into motion such as the one from Barney Frank (HR 5767) fell just short of acceptance.

Some Americans who actually have the means to open foreign accounts and who actually really do want to gamble do so anyway in today’s world as the ban is not properly put into place, and the worst part of this issue is that the government could be making billions if they properly looked at the industry, and regulated it and taxed it instead of negligently banning it. This of course is the main issue as to why Future president Obama would indeed legalize the industry given the fact that the economy has been hit in a sharp manner in this country, and legal entities struggle to survive. In fact, Mr. Obama is in favor of this industry being legalized as he has voted IN FAVOR to government regulation in recent bills. His favorable view along with an economic recession leading into depression might indeed make for a perfect storm leading the government into regulation and the cessation of the UIGEA ban. This point alone combined with the fact that the European Commission has recently formally complained to the World Trade Organization regarding the fact that the USA is acting in an illegal manner by banning foreign companies to trade in their soil (the agreement binds the USA to let this industry and others into action in the US market) are two major points that the new US government will have in favor to lift the ban.