US moves on online gambling

Debates focusing around online casinos are heating up all over the world. South Africa has started taking steps to ban online casinos, and harsh anti-pokies legislation in New South Whales has produced a huge boom in the Australian online casino market. No debate is more closely watched by those in the business than the one in the United States. The US used to be the biggest market for online casinos, and when online gambling was banned in the US

 

 

in 2006, many casinos were unable to adapt to this shift in the market and went under. The US market might be opening back up, although it is a very complex issue. There is currently a bill in the House of Representatives to repeal the ban, and this bill seems to have quite a bit of support, since it allows for taxation and licensing fees to be paid by online casino operators. One of the biggest reasons why the 2006 UIGEA was able to be pushed through so quickly was that at the time there was no system in place for the government to make any money from online casinos the was it does from land based casinos. The problem that the bill faces lies in the Senate. Essentially, the bill won’t pass without the h support of Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader. Reid is from Nevada and has to keep the interests of land based casinos in mind when he decides what to do. Since the casinos themselves are presently undecided what their position is on online gambling, the fate of the bill is still too difficult to determine.