Iowa Fixin\’ to Get All Kentucky-y on Online Gambling?

Kinda. They probably don\’t want to ban it, or even take over Costa Rican domains … but they do want to have their say in how Iowans go about the business of online money games.

From the Iowa Politics Insider:

Iowa should keep its options open and develop plans to “protect its borders” while Internet gambling legislation is being debated in Congress, Iowa Lottery Chief Executive Officer Terry Rich said Tuesday.

[…]

The legislation could include provisions authorizing the federal government to regulate and tax Internet gambling in Iowa if the state’s elected officials don’t take action within a specified time frame, Rich said. He is urging state officials to protect their right to either reject or approve Internet gambling, and to impose taxes.

“The decision may be to do something, do nothing; but to at least have control so that if you do something in the state of Iowa that the state legislature and the governor decides what it should be,” Rich said.

And therein lies what seems to me the next big obstacle for regulated online poker — the states. They want theirs. And eventually all will follow in the footsteps of Kentucky, Minnesota, California, Iowa, et al. and take a look at the revenue possibilities should the Feds want to tax activities within their borders. Then it becomes a matter of who has the right to grab what … and issues of states rights, no matter how any level of legislation looks, is usually only settled in the higher courts.