Legal Internet Gambling? Don’t Bet On It Legislation Directly Attacks Coeur D’Alene Tribe’s Lottery
What are the odds that Congress will pass a new law making Internet gambling illegal?
An Internet site run by Rolling Good Times Online Inc. is giving its readers a chance to “bet” on what will happen to anti-gambling legislation sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
The pool is “just for fun,” and no money is involved, according to Rolling Good Times, a magazine for gamblers. But participants are encouraged to let their members of Congress know what they think about the bill, which would make Internet gambling a federal offense punishable by a maximum $20,000 fine and two years of imprisonment.
Gamblers caught placing bets from computers on such games as blackjack, roulette and craps could be fined up to $2,500 and jailed for up to six months.
The bill also would encourage the president to negotiate agreements with other countries allowing U.S. officials to prosecute operators of foreign gambling business that beam their services into the United States via the Internet.
“Society has always prohibited most forms of gambling because it can have a devastating effect on people and families and it leads to other crime and corruption if not strictly regulated,” Kyl said Monday during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s panel on technology and terrorism.
“The pervasiveness of gambling in our society is shown by the fact that Gamblers Anonymous added 400 new chapters in America between 1990 and 1995,” Kyl said.
The legislation directly attacks the US Lottery site the Coeur d’Alene Tribe is currently testing on the Internet in preparation for full-scale gambling operations originally set for this fall. The multimillion-dollar investment is being fought by Idaho officials and attorneys general in some three dozen other states.
Coeur d’Alene tribal leaders claim the games they are offering on the Internet are no different than state-sponsored lottery games, and they accuse their opponents of trying to protect gambling revenues in their states from competition - particularly Nevada.
Today, states have the power to allow and regulate gambling within their borders. Gambling across state lines is illegal.
But the development of the Internet has created the opportunity to gamble in a way not specifically covered by law, said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.
“The greatest danger posed by Internet gambling is that there is no way to control it and no way to regulate it,” Bryan told the subcommittee. “It is physically impossible for any state to regulate gambling on the Internet, and the only responsible choice Congress can make is simply to prohibit it.”
Under the bill, local and state law enforcement would be able to ask or require telephone companies and Internet service providers to pull the plug on Internet gambling site.
Sue Schneider, Rolling Good Times’ chief executive officer, said it is possible to regulate Internet gambling and the industry already has moved to protect consumers by regulating itself.
“Our basic tack is that we would like to see the bill changed from a prohibition to a regulatory bill,” said Schneider, who also is chairwoman of the Interactive Gambling Council, which issued an industry code of conduct earlier this year.
xxxx THE PENALTIES Under the proposed bill, gamblers caught placing bets from computers on such games as blackjack, roulette and craps could be fined up to $2,500 and jailed for up to six months.