What is going on with Online Gambling? Speculation on the future..

Ok we see numerous posts daily about the doom and gloom of online sports betting in the U.S. Everything from its shutting down tomorrow, to the feds came to my house and handcuffed me for betting 15 dollars on the over in the WNBA game.

As of now, it seems making a wager online in the United States is not necessarily illegal or that there is a big grey zone. I say that because they are now trying to make it clear by the House and Senate passing a law stating online gambling is illegal in the U.S. If it was already illegal, why would they be redundant and pass another law on it?

Right now we are all waiting to see if the online gambling bill is passed in the Senate.

What is the worst case scenario as far as a time for internet gambling in the U.S. to be illegal?

What is the most likely scenario? (Does the bill die in the Senate, does it pass)

Just interested in hearing some logic in this instead of some of the paranoia I have been reading.

Take a deep breath. Relax. Don't worry be happy.

Ultimately the banks and other financial institutions will put the hatchet to this bill as it now exists. There won't be time or inclination on the part of the Senate to deal with the following conundrum.

Banks being required to investigate whether paper checks or non coded financial transactions are related to Internet gamimg will quietly put this bill on the shelf. Such a requirement would be far to costly and time consuming.

And that is but one of a myriad of reasons, which I don't have time to list, why you should have no worries. Worry about the possibility of WWIII instead.

WELL the bill wont be even thought of until the senate get back in Sept. and they have only a few short days before a Election year with many other important bills on the agenda ...the bill is now a fav to be noteven looked at ...id give it 40% chance they even look at it from what im reading on this site and reading articles on it

if it does not even get thru senate or worse yet not even looked at ..I would think NEXT year sometime when they have to start all over again since it will be a NEW CONGRESS someone will say lets study Online gambling for 1.5 yrs or something

If the makeup of the new Congress is what I and most others think it will be, my bet is that for the first time in 8 years or so a bill won't even be introduced.

The Conyers innitiated plan to intensively study all aspects of Internet gaming will eventually be passed and as the US continues its slide to bankruptcy, a more liberal Congress is better than even money IMO do the right thing. And we all know what that is.

The current inmates running the asylum have had their time in the sun. You should see a major drop in political power of the right wing, fanatical religious zealots. Again IMO.

Mr. Jones said:

If the makeup of the new Congress is what I and most others think it will be, my bet is that for the first time in 8 years or so a bill won't even be introduced.

The Conyers innitiated plan to intensively study all aspects of Internet gaming will eventually be passed and as the US continues its slide to bankruptcy, a more liberal Congress is better than even money IMO do the right thing. And we all know what that is.

The current inmates running the asylum have had their time in the sun. You should see a major drop in political power of the right wing, fanatical religious zealots. Again IMO.

Click to expand...

I agree Mr J...and they have a new voter in me voting democrat this year

Mr. Jones said:

Take a deep breath. Relax. Don't worry be happy.

Ultimately the banks and other financial institutions will put the hatchet to this bill as it now exists. There won't be time or inclination on the part of the Senate to deal with the following conundrum.

Banks being required to investigate whether paper checks or non coded financial transactions are related to Internet gamimg will quietly put this bill on the shelf. Such a requirement would be far to costly and time consuming.

And that is but one of a myriad of reasons, which I don't have time to list, why you should have no worries. Worry about the possibility of WWIII instead.

Click to expand...

So very, very true.

The Republicans are ready to have a Lame Duck session AFTER the elections. LTucking: :monsters- :nohead:

Coach LT said:

The Republicans are ready to have a Lame Duck session AFTER the elections. LTucking: :monsters- :nohead:

Click to expand...

It certainly would appear that way...........we can only hope.

I think it's time for the Democrats to come back. They will stick with the issues. Tax the rich and give to the poor. If internet gambling is to become legal it will be with the Democrats. imo. A higher percentage of minorities do drugs and receive government assistance, while more white's gamble online. This is a great opportunity to tax the white man and give to the poor.

SHACK said:

I think it's time for the Democrats to come back. They will stick with the issues. Tax the rich and give to the poor. If internet gambling is to become legal it will be with the Democrats. imo. A higher percentage of minorities do drugs and receive government assistance, while more white's gamble online. This is a great opportunity to tax the white man and give to the poor.

Click to expand...

Don't be so sure....don't forget that one of the most powerful Democratic Senators is Harry Reid, who has a vested interest in making sure that you gamble in his home state of Nevada. Also, don't forget that Janet Reno was in charge of the Justice Department when the Feds arrested Jay Cohen. It sure as hell won't be any worse than it is now, but the Democrats aren't exactly a friend to the Internet betting community.

What will most likely happen IMO is that the morons in Congress in both parties will find other "straw men" they can knock down while wrecklessly spending our money to dole out pork projects in their own states. Eventually, they'll get wise to the fact that there's too many people out there betting online--be it poker, sports or whatever--and that they're best left alone. Internet betting will continue in more or less the same legal grey area in which it currently exists.

I certainly don't see any formal legalization of the industry in the next few years--it makes too much sense. The individual states who run lotteries and other forms of gambling wouldn't let it happen, nor would the lobby groups for the land based casino industry. While legalization is a no-brainer due to the tax reveunes it would bring in if nothing else, there are too many vested interests opposed to it and too many politicians with their hands in their pockets.

I'm a Libertarian by ideology, but I'll probably end up voting Democrat in the next election. The biggest upside to the Dems at this point IMO is that they're not in bed with the Fundamentalist Christians that appear to be the only people really worked up about online gambling....

Here's another thing to consider.

The super rich, almost exclusively Republican National Thoroughbred Racing Association was initially content and happy with this current House Bill since they had a legislative carve out. But remember, this carve out was legislative only and in opposition to the DOJ's stance that internet horse wagering and off track betting are illegal. End OTB, TVG, etc,etc, and you have effectively ended thoroughbred racing as we now know it. And that happening is beyond anyone's wildest imagination.

Now all of a sudden, Antigua is using this carve out which allows internet horse wagering in the US to be a most important legal issue. How can it be legal in the US and be illegal offshore. That is what is now being put on the WTO's table.

So the NTRA is all of a sudden just a bit leery. Even they know the DOJ is off the wall and the religious zealots would kill even pitching pennies on the sidewlk if they could.

Offshore could gain this game breaking ally by simply making offshore horse wagers a part of the pari-mutual pool. That's all the NTRA is rightfully concerned about.

Now this current stance by Antigua is making Mitch McConnell and even the infamous Jim Bunning both [R-KY] take some notice. Furthermore to paraprahe what I wrote above, give these current imbecilic legislators led by the religious fanatics one victory on the "Traditional Values" front and rest assured they'll want another. All of this is making "The Bluegrass" take note.

If offshore can somehow gain an alliance with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the billions and trillions behind it, [again it only wants all bets going into the pari-mutuals], you would finally put an end to all of this madness for good.

Mr. Jones said:

((snip of Mr. Jones' excellent observations))

If offshore can somehow gain an alliance with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the billions and trillions behind it, [again it only wants all bets going into the pari-mutuals], you would finally put an end to all of this madness for good.

Click to expand...

At some point I'm hoping that the relevant gaming interests here in the US--specifically the American Gaming Association (the big casino industry lobby) and the aforementioned NTRA--realize that like it or not they're in the same bed as offshore gambling. As Mr. Jones noted, the fundamentalist religious kooks and their puppets in Congress care not about "legislative carve outs" to protect their business interests and would love to do whatever they can to put the gambling genie back in the bottle be it online or not. The fundamentalists don't care about jurisdictional issues (eg: the WTO dispute) and just want to enforce their religious and moral views on the population as a whole. To them, gambling is evil no matter where it is conducted and no matter who gets the tax revenues....