Experts Say Online Gambling Has Better Safeguards Than Land Based Casinos Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

The internet gambling industry is now receiving support from an unlikely source - problem gambling experts. Some of the world's leading experts on compulsive gambling are now speaking out in favor of having online gambling legalized in the United States.

The U.S. Government's battle with online gambling dates back more than a decade, to when Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) repeatedly tried and failed to pass a bill titled "The Internet Gaming Prohibition Act". After a decade of failures, Congressional Republicans emerged victorious in the fight to stamp out online gambling last year, after adding a prohibitive bill to the inside of a homeland security bill that increased security for various ports in the United States - known as a piggyback bill.

The new gambling law, known as the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act", or UIGEA, was signed into law by President Bush last fall - without looking at it (many Congressional members also did not read the bill before passing it). The law serves to provide a lawful barrier that prevents financial institutions from processing electronic payments to online casinos. Critics of the bill point out that most financial institutions had been doing this voluntarily since 2002, making the new legislation a waste of time and tax dollars.

In the meantime, the World Trade Organization has ruled that this ban is in violation of U.S. trade agreements.  Since the World Trade Organization has ruled against the ban and the United States has failed to comply with the ruling that the Internet gambling restrictions are illegal, the island of Antigua has asked the World Trade Organizaton to authorize $3.4 billion in commercial sanctions againt the United States.

Andrew Poole, the Head of Online Services for GamCare in the UK, has said, "Across Europe and the rest of the world, experience has shown that regulated Internet gambling and the implementation of proven safeguards can ensure more responsible gambling operations and off-set increases in problematic gambling."

Among the leading reasons of why problem gambling experts support the idea of online gambling is the fact that  consumers can more easily make informed decisions and that they have access to their spending habits more readily available than they would if they were gambling in a physical casino.   Thus, hopefully, the UIGEA will be thrown out by the US courts.