US Government Tried to Secretly Legalise Online Gambling
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Three Republican senators have refused to give their backing to legislation that would legalise and tax some forms of online gambling after calling it a “secretive, closed-door and undemocratic” attempt.
The three Republicans, Spencer Bachus, Lamar Smith and Dave Camp, who would all be committee chairmen in control of online gambling should it be regulated, claimed that the Senate has been planning to push it through as a ‘must pass’ piece of legislation. Online gambling has often been the subject of much disagreement within Congress during the last few years with opinion split between the idea that it will bring in billions of tax dollars and that it could cause children to gamble and many Americans to gamble recklessly.
In a letter signed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid he said: “Creating a right to gamble that has never existed requires careful deliberation, not back-room deals”. Reid himself is senator of Nevada and, as a result, he obviously has large pressure from within his state to act in the best interests of the casino industry.
The three opponents who have spoken out against this forced legislation voiced their concerns about the legalisation of online gambling by saying that it might only be happening because of the desperation to get more tax dollars. They added: “Congress should not take advantage of the young, the weak and the vulnerable in the name of new revenues.”
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