The major focus of Barack Obama’s presidency campaign were the issues of education, health care and tax cuts for middle class U.S. citizens. Now the head of the state, the new President, is working diligently to make his campaign slogan become a reality – change. Sure, Obama has a lot on his plate as there is no easy fix the damage that was years in the making. With that said, it would be nice if he could take a look into another mess – the regulations of online gambling in America.
Billions up for Grabs
The online gambling industry is flourishing to say the least. In fact, the market has globally generated more than four billion dollars in the past two years alone. Keep in mind that these revenues were garnered with very little participation from the U.S., which has pretty much been isolated from the market since the implementation of the UIGEA in 2006, a legislation that some online gambling proponents are calling the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Observers are projecting that the online gambling industry will exceed $15 billion by 2012. That is, with or without the participation of the U.S. A recent study released by Price Waterhouse Coopers shows that the United States has the potential to rake in at least $8.7 billion and up to $17.6 billion in as little as 10 years. That is, if Congress decided to legalize, tax and regulate online gambling. The study hints that if all U.S. states got onboard, a whopping $33.9 billion in taxes would be collected over the next decade. Considering the current economic state, this seems like a move U.S. lawmakers should seriously considering.
So, what is the United States Congress waiting for? Well, in their defense, there are still a number of aspects that would need to be addressed in order for online gambling to be regulated in an effective manner. Some of these issues include age verification to prevent underage gambling, policing rogue and black market casinos, and the fear of compulsive gambling among others. However, just as the nation has done with the prohibition of alcohol, which actually shares many similarities with internet gambling including an economic crisis at the time, there is a way around these issues if U.S. lawmakers could just see the big picture. Just as alcohol proved to be a lucrative business in the way of taxes, online gambling could be the same and breath life into an economy that is obviously struggling.
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The Bottom Line
The factor of the matter is as simple as this: the UIGEA remains unclear to this day and was a terrible idea from the start. Anyone looking at the situation with a clear head would agree that it needs to revoked and quickly. While there may be bigger fish to fry in terms of health care, education and national security, it wouldn’t hurt for the Obama administration to take a closer glance at the state of online gambling and its potential as a huge generator for future tax revenues. Alcohol prohibition proved that it can be done and because of that, sensibly regulating online gambling should be a heightened priority.
