Online Gambling & the USA National Debt
Article by Mick Brenner
There has been much debate lately over the United States decision to start seizing domain names in order to stop US citizens from gambling online. On April 15th, 2011 Full Tilt and Pokerstars which are the top 2 online poker sites were forced to stop accepting US players & several of their operators were indicted for money laundering. Let’s face facts, the operators knew that the methods they were using to accept US players were illegal. Transactions were made to look as if they were something other than online gambling activity.
What really seems odd is that this all took place the day after Barack Obama gave a speech which outlined his financial plan for America’s future and reducing the national deficit. Most will call this a conspiracy theory, but it seems as if there is a lot going on behind the scenes. I’m someone that firmly believes that our government won’t legalize anything that they can’t squeeze tax dollars out of.
This isn’t about their concerns for Americans and what we do with our hard earned dollar. It’s about their concern for us spending our money on things we enjoy that may benefit another country. If they were so concerned about us wagering money then things like the lottery wouldn’t exist. We wouldn’t be able to go to horse tracks and bet on races. Last time I checked, you could count on one hand the amount of states that don’t offer casino gambling.
With the current situation of our economy and housing market, now would be the perfect time to hurry up and get a bill passed that would allow online wagering. Gambling is the 3rd most popular leisure activity among Americans. Take Canada for example. According to the Canada Gaming website the gambling industry employs over 135,000 Canadians, pays more than billion in salaries annually and represents billion in current capital construction.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that any person with a credit card should be able to deposit money online and gamble any time they choose. There needs to be limits placed on how much each person can actually wager. I don’t want to see crime rates go up as a result of addiction.
The possibilities of tax licensing and even government run gambling websites are endless. If they want to start hacking away at this debt I think this is as good of a place to start as any.
About the Author
Mick Brenner is a sports gambling enthusiast that has been in the industry for 15 years. He makes daily sports picks on his website http://www.freesportsselections.com