Senator Proposes Internet Gambling Help Fund Health Care Reform

[JeffreyS]

Internet gambling regulation received a strong endorsement over the weekend as one senator proposed to help fund health care reform by collecting taxes generated through the regulation of Internet gambling.

Specifically, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) offered an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee that would dedicate the tax revenue generated through implementation of the currently pending act (H.R. 2267) to increase low-income subsidies provided through the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009.

We applaud Senator Wyden’s proposal and hope the Senate Finance Committee approves the resolution.

It’s about time Congress ended the failed prohibition on Internet gambling that leaves Americans unprotected and unlicensed offshore operators as the only beneficiaries in a thriving marketplace.

Here is a link to a release we just put out on the Wyden amendment: [Link no longer works]

To learn more about our efforts to regulate Internet gambling, please visit www.safeandsecureig.org.

Thanks,

Michael Waxman
Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative

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[Joe Slick]

I received an email similar to this earlier and I'm sure many of you did as well.

I have been thinking about this for a long time. This all sounds great but I wonder if anybody has considered exactly where these billions of dollars are going to come from.

The bill says the that the internet gambling sites will be licensed and that the fees from these licensees will pay for the administration of the program. Then there is going to be extra money to pay for all sorts of government programs. For US players the gambling winnings are going to be reported to the IRS for tax purposes. (I don't think anybody knows exactly what that is, but it's a good bet that you will be able to incur a tax liability without withdrawing a nickel and, possibly, without ever showing a net profit.)

So, these licensees are going to pay the fees out of their existing profits? They're going to take take responsibility for underage and problem gambling, and reimburse underage and problem gamblers who found their way around the system? They're going to go to all the expense of positively documenting every player to verify that they say who they are and guarantee positively that the person playing the account is the correct person? They're going to open their books to the US federal authorities to so that it can be confirmed that there is no money laundering going on.

If this passes AND they find a way to technologically block all unlicensed sites, I think you are going to find sites with only US players and sites without US players. The rakes on the US sites will be higher making the games unplayable and unattractive to international players. Furthermore, international players might not like their records subject to US inspections, and I wouldn't blame them. Internet Poker in the US will suffer a slow painful death.

If they don't find a way to technologically block all unlicensed sites, especially PS, this will be a wasted effort.

The current system is far from perfect but, speaking for myself, I hope this doesn't pass. I'm satisfied to be a renegade partaking in illegal micro-level gambling activities.

Here's a link to the summary of the bill.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2267&tab=summary

 

[smd173]

I'm satisfied to be a renegade partaking in illegal micro-level gambling activities.

Not much of a renegade then since it's not illegal to play. The only thing the UIGEA every made illegal was for banks and payment processors to transfer money to online sites.

The rest of your post was spot on though. We'll get it legalized finally but it's going to come with alot of tax headaches. I don't know if it will ultimately cause a slow death. And Europeans can still play on Europe friendly sites. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see like a pokerstars.us and a Pokerstars.eu or something.