Congress considering legalizing online gambling

July 26, 2010 | Kitty Felde | KPCC

Download

Karen Bleier/Getty Images

A man plays poker on his computer connected to an internet gaming site from his home in Manassas, VA 02 October, 2006.

Share: Facebook Twitter More... Mail Print Comment (2)

This week, Congress takes up legislation that would legalize online gambling. The bill’s author is Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts. But an Orange County Republican also supports it.

GOP Congressman John Campbell of Irvine is no gambler. He says he can’t even remember what's a straight and a flush "and which one’s better."

But he does support allowing Americans to do what they want to do. "And Americans clearly like to gamble. And they would like to do it on the Internet."

Online gaming is illegal, but many people gamble on offshore websites or find poker buddies to play in cyberspace.

Campbell supports a measure that would make all this legal -- with consumer protections. For example, he says, "when gambling on an outside site, how do you know they pay anybody any winnings?"

Campbell, a vocal anti-tax man, does support imposing a tax on Internet gambling. He calls it "revenue that won’t be increasing taxes on anybody. If you don’t want to pay the tax, don’t gamble."

Democratic Congressman Joe Baca opposes the measure. He says there aren't enough protections to keep children and gambling addicts off the sites. Baca's district is home to Indian gaming casinos.

Campbell doesn't think online casinos pose a threat to traditional gambling sites. "There’s an experiential thing about going to Las Vegas or Atlantic City," he says. "There’s an experiential thing for a poker player to look somebody in the eye. So I don’t think this is going to put the brick and mortar gambling establishments out of business."

The House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to debate amendments to the bill tomorrow.


Comments

Tracy

1 month, 1 week ago

Link to this comment

Well, there aren't protections to keep alcoholics out of bars either. So, why should it matter if gambling addicts can get on-line and play poker?

Online Casino Suite

1 month, 1 week ago

Link to this comment

That's always the excuse - that gambling addicts and children will not be protected! Thanks for mentioning that Baca's district is home to Indian Casinos - that's the real crutch of it. The US opposition to online gambling has long been fueled by the brick 'n mortar industry, yet in the name of family values. The UIGEA's top agent, Congressman Bill Frist, said he pushed the UIGEA (the bill that makes most forms of online gambling illegal in the States) because of family values. Yet, Frist also received campaign contributions from Harrah's. Interesting, don't you think. And now, Harrah's is in support of regulating online gambling, because just like Campbell is quoted in this article, they are seeing that online gambling won't steal business. If anything, Harrah's will be able to tap into the billions that online gambling generates.

New comments disabled after 14 days