If Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has his way, Congress will vote to overturn the long-standing ban on Internet gambling. Frank said Tuesday he will introduce a bill to allow licensed gambling operators to accept bets from U.S. gamblers.
The measure has the backing of the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, a group that supports legal online betting. The group estimates than Americans bet over $100 billion a year using offshore gaming sites. Use of those sites is currently against U.S. law.
Meanwhile, the measure has its opponents. University of Illinois professor and national gambling critic John W. Kindt claims legal gambling would make addictions worse and sink an already sputtering economy.
Kindt says supporters of a renewed push to lift the ban, which started with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's wire act against organized crime, are betting that online gambling will pay off in easy new tax dollars, but he contends the stakes are too high.
"The revenue they would get is miniscule compared to the devastation it would bring to financial systems, stock markets, national security and people's lives," said Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy.
Frank's bill would overturn the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which strengthened the existing ban. Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, also sought repeal but failed in 2007, just a year after the measure was passed and signed into law.
"It's outrageous that he's trying again," said Kindt, who has studied gambling for more than two decades. "This law was the result of 10 years of congressional hearings, where expert after expert warned of the dangers of gambling on the Internet."
Kindt, who testified in support of the law, says online gambling would inflame problems already linked to casinos. He says research shows bankruptcies increase 18 to 42 percent in areas with casinos, crime jumps 10 percent and rates for new addicted gamblers double.
But business and banking organizations have long complained about the gambling ban, saying it creates a burden on the financial services sector by requiring banks to identify and block illegal gambling transactions.
The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative says the tax revenue from online gaming is far from insignificant, saying it could total more than $60 billion over 10 years.
