Online Gambling News From American States

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Many experts in the USA opine that regulated online gambling will enter through the states and they could well be right. Recently online gambling bills were introduced in the legislatures of two states.

The first of these was Mississippi. There Representative Bobby Moak had unsuccessfully tried to get a bill on intrastate online gambling passed last year. Not willing to give up, he has presented “The Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act of 2013”. The bill will empower the legislators to determine which online gambling verticals are acceptable, and how these might be regulated, licensed and taxed. A proposed rate of 5% of gross revenues is suggested. The bill is not favorable to existing online gambling operators because licenses will be restricted to those already holding land casino gambling licenses. The proposed costs include a one-time $200,000 application fee and a licensing fee of $200,000 per year. The additional burden on licensees would include software certification, management and financial probity, geo-location, player ID precautions and monetary supervision and taxation. The tax revenues would be allocated equally to the Mississippi Gaming Commission for anti-illegal gambling activity and to general state funds. The bill also proposes measures against illegal online gambling such as fines, imprisonment, domain seizures and ISP blocking. Illegal online gambling will include the deployment of questionable and cheating software.

Massachusetts state senator Jennifer L. Flanagan has moved forward the state’s plans to expand lottery gambling to the online domain. The initiative was announced a few months back by state treasurer Steven Grossman. Earlier this week Grossman said that if the legislation was approved the state Lottery Commission would put a pilot suite of games online in 2013. He again clarified that nothing would be done unless approved by state politicians. He also stressed that the 7,400 retail lottery agents would be given a role in the online gambling so as to protect them from any adverse impact that they perceive. Grossman anticipated explosive growth in online gambling and stated that it was essential for the state lottery to be a part of it. “The threat from the Internet is imminent. Doing nothing is not an option. We need to move forward and test appropriately”

Senator Flanagan, who filed the legislation, has served on a state commission which recommended that Mississippi become involved in online gambling. She has also sponsored bills that have led to an expansion in land gambling activity. Flanagan echoed Grossman’s views when she said, “This isn’t a debate over whether you like gaming or not, this is a debate over the fact that we have to move to online gaming to protect state revenues.”

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