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)]
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.