My recent Technology Law column in eCommerce Times describes why the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has merely driven Internet Gambling off-shore and as result the US is losing billions of dollars of tax revenue. Generally the UIGEA resulted from four major policy concerns of the federal government:

First, the Internet was too easy a venue for compulsive gamblers.

Second, the age of Internet gamblers could not easily be determined, and underage gambling could not be controlled as with a brick-and-mortar casino.

Third, a lack of regulation of Internet gambling made it easy to defraud gamblers and rig the odds.

Fourth, the anonymity of the Internet made online gambling a medium for potential money laundering.

Since the US economy is doing so poorly Congress is considering legislation to regulate Internet Gambling which would result in an estimated $42 billion in tax revenues over the next ten years. Outlawing Internet Gambling failed much like Prohibition did in the 1920s. It’s high time Congress rescinded UIGEA, to help the economy and regulate Internet Gambling which clearly we cannot stop.

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