A gaming columnist for the LVRJ agrees with BJ … don\’t expect changes to online gambling laws anytime soon, simply because Congress is busy with more pressing matters:
After checking with Washington, D.C., lobbyist contacts and casino company operators dialed into Capitol Hill, Simkins put steep odds on the issue seeing any light.
\”We see little reason for investors to try to play this near-term,\” Simkins said.
Meanwhile, I had almost forgotten there was an internet gambling bill pending in Texas … an effort to make the Texas Lotto playable online. (Ha! Just wait til Texas banks try to transfer that money around.) From the Beaumont Enterprise:
PRO:
Internet gambling might seem like a big step to some Texans, but it\’s not. More and more of our modern society is moving to the Internet, from shopping to news to entertainment. Gambling is part of this matrix. There\’s no logical reason to wall off the \’net from something that\’s clearly popular with millions of consumers.
CON:
OUR VIEW: NO INTERNET GAMBLING FOR TEXAS
Internet gambling, especially when targeted at young adults, would cross a moral line that Texas needs to stay away from. That makes gambling a little too easy. It increases the chances that compulsive gamblers would waste money and establish bad gambling patterns for young adults.
OK, fair enough … you\’re entitled to your moralist point of view, despite what statistics suggest. In fact, I\’ll even assure you that it absolutely WILL be harmful to compulsive gamblers … which represent .6 percent of people online . How \’bout we compromise? We\’ll say no to playing the Texas lottery on the internet if you say yes to brick-and-mortar poker rooms? Cool? Awesome … cool.
Politics is so easy.