Much has been written on the debate between online gambling and on-land gambling, a debate which is meaningless particularly if land casinos get the opportunity to offer online gambling. It may be sooner than many think. Already in Iowa, eight lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow people to make deposits into Iowa casino accounts, the accounts could then be used to play online poker. Read more.
While advocates of the idea call it “account deposit wagering” and are hesitant to call it internet gambling, it doesn’t take a genius to realize, if your playing poker online or gambling online, it’s online gambling. They can call it whatever they want to, it’s all about the bottom line, and that bottom line is to the tune of an additional $11.5 million in state revenue. It’s always the interesting to hear the sentiments of state officials about the current online gambling industry, a representative working on the bill stated that the move would allow the state to put constraints on a practice that Iowans are currently being abused on by out of country unregulated entities…Funny, I’ve never heard an Iowan claim they’ve been abused by an unregulated out of country online gambling company. I think what he meant to say, is we can take the money that Iowans are spending on online gambling entertainment offered from out of country online gambling entities, and stuff our own pockets. Call a spade a spade, why mince words? Then again, why call blatant online gambling “account deposit wagering”? Who do they think they are fooling? It’s almost insulting.
If this bill pushes through, you can almost certainly expect a domino effect to ensue in other states. I’m sure Atlantic City casinos and Las Vegas casinos would love the opportunity to offer a similar type of service. And perhaps those looking to see online gambling regulated in the US should be looking more closely at the changes in individual states. Federal online gambling regulation across the board in the U.S seems in the distant future, but state by state regulation changes could certainly be in the near future. Of all the states, I have to admit, Iowa wasn’t my first choice for the state that would spearhead the movement, but money talks and online gambling talks a lot of money. Additionally the move would be good for casinos struggling to attract new visitors. People wouldn’t necessarily have to spend time in the casino to be spending money with the casino, essentially, land based casinos would enjoy the best of both worlds. I guess that would put an end to the debate.
