Online Gambling In The United States

As you may or may not be aware, the industry is gaining a lot of popularity around the world and with that popularity comes a bit of turmoil. Especially in the United States, governments ,both local and national, have been fighting to make all types of websites illegal. The problem is that many people in the United States think that the gambling associated with internt is intrinsically evil and should not be allowed in the country.

While there is plenty of opposition to the legalization of internet gambling on a national level, many groups have been working hard to win the legalization of these sites in individual states. The fight for intrastate gambling has been a slow won and like any other battle has had its fair shares of victories and losses. As we look towards the future, many hopefuls envision a United States where websites and gambling is legal and state regulated, but until that day comes the fight will still rage on.

Why Is Gambling Illegal?

The first question a lot of people who are not familiar with the situation ask is about why internet palces and gambling is illegal in the first place. That is a good question but it is also one that is a bit difficult to explain because there are so many different reasons from so many different groups of people.

One of the biggest concerns amongst the general population in regards to the legalization of internet gambling is underage gambling. In brick and mortar gambling houses underage gambling is a recurrent theme and those places have live personnel checking IDs, the thought is that online any 14 year old kid can pose as a legal 18 year old gambler without ever having to face the identification scrutiny that they would face at an actual place. While this is a very big concern it is not one that other nations have not addressed. Penalties for underage gambling, in many other nations, falls upon the person who is caught gambling as well as their parents because it is usually the parents that facilitates a young child’s gaming habits. Opposition groups in the US claim that there is no full proof way to check, and be sure of, a person’s age and until there is gambling websites should be illegal.

Another major reason why these places are illegal in the United States is because people just view it as flat out evil. The amount of gambling addiction in the US is quite high, and because of that a lot of groups view webistes as a perpetrator of gambling addiction which is true to an extent but not in its entirety. Gambling addiction is a problem all over the world, but many other nations have great ways of handling victims of gambling addiction without ruining it for the other grinders and recreational players. The problem with the United States lies within the fact that they simply do not wish to entertain the thought of legalizing internet gambling. The people of the United States and their government hide behind the “we have better things to worry about” excuse when addressing the legalization.

The Fight For Legalization

Legalization in the United States is a situation that has been argued and debated over for years at this point. As soon as one group of people seems to achieve a victory, another group wins a decision against the fight so it is really starting to become a stalemate. The main plan of action for most gambling activists is to work in individual states in order to pass legalization laws at the state level instead of fighting for a national level law. The thought is that if enough states are able to legalize gambling within their state that the federal government will take notice and rethink their current ruling. In the early running quite a few states have passed laws and have bills going through their respective house and senate, but it is a slow process and it may be years before we are once more able to enjoy all of the best websites without jumping through a hundred hoops.

How Do Some Sites Still Operate?

While gambling sites and gambling in general is illegal in the United States, it is no secret that there are plenty of gambling establishments that US citizens still play on. But why haven’t these sites been shut down like the big ones were?

The main reason is because the US government quite frankly does not want to waste their time with small sites who will end up paying small fines and creating a big mess. These sites are quite literally flying under the radar and until they become the big fish the US government will not want to bother.

Another reason some sites are still able to keep running in the US even though sites are illegal is because some places are licensed and operated from different countries and the US government is legally unable to touch them. It is one of the many loopholes that exist in the current state of online gambling, being as unregulated as it is.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of the legal situation regarding sites in the United States, but there is no doubt that this is becoming quite the fiasco. Many gamblers do not understand why their country is so vehemently against online gambling while they see hundreds of other country’s citizens playing games without issue. Even knowing that they could make millions of dollars in tax revenue off of the regulation, the government still turns a blind eye.

To me, it does not make sense to pass up the tax revenue that could be earned by legalizing online gaming, especially when the United States is in a situation where any and all extra revenue would be of great help.