In the past five years since the de facto ban on Internet gambling (congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006) the US could have created 32,000 jobs and raised $94 billion in gross expenditures as well as an additional $57.5 billion in tax revenue from wagering activities, related job creation and growth of supporting businesses. All of this would have been the result of legalizing and taxing Internet gambling according to a new study released last week by H2 Gambling Capital.
But that didn’t happen. While most of the opposition to online gambling came from the neoconservative right, most of those legislators seemed more than happy to let the activity exist in a federal regulatory gray area with no federal law applying to non-sports wagering on the Internet, leaving it to particular states to determine if and how to regulate.
[Via Jack Liberty (a cool daily newsletter summing up the news)]
“a cool daily newsletter…..”
It would be even more cool with margins.
I doubt that many people would have jobs. A lot of the online gambling sites have their workers overseas in India.
Also there would be a lot of stupid people that would lose their money on gambling and imagine how many lives would be ruined.
Gambling is not an economic solution. Almost without exception, gambling simply redistributes money away from those who can least afford it. Add in the usual social costs of gambling like addiction, family problems, etc., it’s an overall net negative to society.
Online gambling is a dumb idea. Casinos are a dumb idea. My wife’s grandfather is suffering from dementia and he goes to the Casino almost everyday, not having remembered how much he spent the day before. In the past 2 years, he has burned through $100,000 of his savings.
Listen, if dopes want to gamble and lose their money, how is that different than those who buy iPads and Prius automobiles they can’t afford? I just got a “new” auto. A 2003 Ford Ranger in good condition. Cost? $4000 cash. My idiot friend spent $19,000 he doesn’t have on a new Ford Focus because he liked the idea of plugging his stupid iPod directly into it. A fool and his money are soon parted. Quit whining about it, you stupid liberals. Here in San Francisco, busloads of Chinese people dressed in “lucky purple” head for Indian casinos every day, and I am glad they do. It’s a fine place for their Social Security checks to end up. The Indians don’t seem to mind people losing their money, why should I?
#4 But, he is having fun, right? He is getting something for his money.
#6, he’s probably having fun for as long as he can remember what he’s doing, but he’ll soon be out of money. How fun will that be?
#2 correct..
90% of the gambling is Offshore to the USA…
32k jobs in OTHER NATIONS..ANd I really doubt its that many.
57 billion??
Thats BULLION!!
ALSO,
I hope you know that the USA is fighting against the WTO, about allowing Internet gambling in the USA. we are SUPPOSED to allow it, and PAY A FINE.
“While most of the opposition to online gambling came from the neoconservative right…”
“Quit whining about it, you stupid liberals.”
Faxon, are you incapable of reading or do you just always point the finger at “the other team”
People who want to gamble, gamble. I don’t understand why but then I can’t stand to lose.
First,
Nearly every state in the US has allowed gambling in the form of a state lottery.
Have the schools improved? No. (The primary reason/lie to have a lottery)
Are the states in the shit with debt beyond their eyeballs? Yes.
Second,
If memory serves, the gambling on wall street and in the housing market is what GOT us here.
Give a monkey a brain.
Cursor_
The trouble with gambling is that poor people get involved and it creates more problems then it solves. I think we would be much better off trying to create jobs with a much better purpose then emptying the pockets of others because they develop a gambling adiction.
Who is the brainwave that believes this?
Sure it would have created 32,000 jobs and 57 billion in tax revenue, no doubt.
IN SOME OTHER COUNTRY
… because all these sites were UK, Bahamas, Ireland or some non-US country.
NONE of the mega-gambling sites were in the USA.
This was actually one of the few good moves our government has done in recent years.
As an ultra right conservative and a Bible-believing Christian, I think that gambling and marijuana use should be the decision of the individual. Personally, I intend to choose neither.
If its an economic issue, the attitude is “The government is evil and regulation/laws/taxes are bad. People should be responsible and look out for themselves.”
If its perceived as a moral issue suddenly we “must protect those poor bastards from the evils of gambling and drugs. The government should do something.”
Interesting hypocrisy.
I don’t have a problem with people playing in person at a casino. It’s their money.
I DO have issues with Internet gaming, which seems to be far more dangerous and addicting than in-casino gaming, and which has far less oversight from gaming commissions. I simply don’t go there.
#14 I also choose neither but that’s not the problem.
The problem takes place at the voting booth where choice itself is being voted on. Are you saying you’re “pro choice” or “pro my choice”?
Humans are a strange species. They play complicated games with odd rituals involving plastic cubes or flat rectangles printed with numbers and faces.
One throws a piece of plastic or two on a table, and suddenly someone else owns his house?
There is no logic to it. Very strange indeed.
Fuck’n wall street, banks and health care are not enough black holes to throw your money into. You want this crap? HAHAHA
#14, on this point at least, that sounds more like libertarian talk than an ultra-conservative viewpoint.
There is a basics of economics being lost here…
Just because we allow gambling doesn’t mean people suddenly have more money to spend…most of us only have so much disposable income we can spend. Just because there’s a casino down the street (or poker table on our computer) doesn’t mean we automatically have MORE money to spend on such things.
If I have $20 spare in a week…I can go out to eat, buy a cheap pair of shoes, pay the kid down the street to mow my lawn, or go blow it on the slots. Whatever I choose, I’ve only got $20 to spend. No more money magically appears in my wallet, on the tax rolls, or elsewhere just because gambling is an available form of entertainment.
This basic premise is LOST every time someone talks about the how we “could have” gotten “this much money” had we allowed “this thing to become legal.” No, there’s no extra money. We all still only have so much we can afford to spend on luxuries or “fun.” Just because it’s gambling, legalized drugs, legalized prostitution, doesn’t matter. The money we would spend on these newly legalized activities would have to be taken away from something else we were already spending it on.
The sponsor, Jim Leach, is chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities now.
I love the comments. Hilarious.
Idiot morons in the United States who think the government should allow you to have as many guns as you like, but not allow you to play some cards. LOL – you idiots are totally fucked in the head.
Then there is this guy : “Faxon” who likes to continually pat himself on the back for being cheap. Your wife and kids must be so proud of you, do you give everyone used Christmas gifts as well?
That legislation was the cause of my favorite Texas Holdem site closing down! I never gambled for money online, way too many ways to get defrauded, but it was a great site to practice with fake money. Stupid government!
#1, you can sign up and receive it on your email inbox every day.
#24, heh.
sO,
no one wants to comment on what the WTO did/said?
That the USA is in contempt, and must ALLOW international internet Gaming?
THE WTO has FINED the USA for not allowing international Internet gaming.