A gaming expert recently reported that Tom Grey of Stop Predatory Gambling and the reporter from one of America’s news network who interviewed him are somewhat confused by a recent count ruling with regard to the UIGEA and online casinos. According to an online gambling analyst, the two make several misrepresentations in their article leading to the uncertainty of legalizing online casinos and its effect on problem gamblers.
The gambling analyst claims that the report starts with an overview of the federal appeals court decision concerning the UIGEA recently that does not correctly describe the legal situation. He states that the ruling did not include any federal law restricting online gambling since there is no relevant law. It, however, included the right to restrict online payments being made towards any form of gambling which was illegal under the existing laws.
Since the federal laws only apply to sports betting, casino gambling and poker, the individual state laws would decide on the respective rules.
Grey stated that the land based casinos wanted to cancel the UIGEA as they were suffering losses and wanted to operate without the cost of labor and capital investment a land based casino usually requires. However, the gambling analyst affirms that even though a large part of the land based gambling market opposes the competition of internet gambling casinos, and that if casinos lose money they must not be the usual money-sucking traps.
He says that even $6 billion annual Government revenue would be far less than the harm bet US casino online gambling would cause to problematic gamblers. He also points out that several scientific studies show that online gambling is less compulsive and harmful than the land based form of gambling.