Home » OCW News » October 2009 » Legalized U.S. Online Gambling Worth $42 billion

Legalized U.S. Online Gambling Worth $42 billion

Date published: 29 October 2009

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According to an in-depth analysis conducted by the Joint Committee on Taxation on the pros of legalizing and regulating online gambling in the United States, making the popular internet activity lawful could generate $42 billion in taxable revenues for the U.S. Treasury over the next 10 years.

The Committee was asked to investigate the feasibility of legislation aimed at legalizing and regulating online gambling in the country from an independent tax standpoint, with no political or skewed agenda. And their findings were pretty surprising, considering the taxable revenues only applied to online poker.

The legislation would result in only the legalization of online poker, because poker is considered to be more of a 'game of skill' than most other forms of gambling. Which is why the legislation would continue to enforce the ban on online casinos, online bingo casinos and even websites offering online sports betting.

Chairman of the House Financial Services, Barney Frank is in full support of the piece of legislation. For many years Frank has been the Hill's most vocal critic of the U.S. online gambling ban, which came about in October 2006 after Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

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And Frank is not alone as approximately 60 House lawmakers have signed on to support the legislation. It seems an increasing number of U.S. politicians are realizing that taxing online gambling firms is a potentially huge source of much-needed revenue, and one the government is letting slip though it fingers.

Another supporter of the legislation is Rep. Jim McDermott (D., Wash.) who said, 'I'm always looking for money to deal with some of the problems I see out there, and this looked like a good place to find revenue.' If more lawmakers come around to his way of thinking, legalized online gambling has a shot in the U.S.

Said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, a pro online gambling lobby, 'With support for online gambling regulation growing daily, it's only a matter of time before Congress acts and allocates billions in revenues sitting on the table to one program or another.'