Document Type
Article
Abstract
Over the last two decades, society has gradually accepted gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment. This is evidenced by the $550 billion spent on legalized gambling in the United States in 1996. These revenues come from many different types of gambling, including lotteries, casinos, pull tabs, sports wagering, and bingo. Only two states, Utah and Hawaii, ban all forms of gambling. At least 56 percent of all Americans gambled in some form in 1996.
Within the last two years, however, a new form of gambling has emerged: Internet gambling. People no longer have to leave the comfort of their homes to place bets or wagers. Instead, they can sit comfortably in the privacy of their homes and gamble using the computer. Because of the Internet’s widespread availability and international scope, this emerging form of gambling presents new legal and policy concerns since there are arguably few, if any, regulations that govern Internet gambling.
Historically, states have been the only regulators of gambling within their own territories. However, because the Internet has made it much easier to conduct gambling across state and national borders, the authority of states to control gambling within their borders has been undermined. Consequently, Congress has recently introduced bills which are designed to provide states with the authority to enforce their own gambling laws by making it illegal either to receive or place bets or wagers on the Internet. The character of the Internet, however, means that such a law will be virtually ineffective.
Part II of this article discusses the recent development of Internet gambling and how such sites operate. Part III describes both the methods that states have used to prohibit Internet gambling and the federal statutes which may be applicable, including the recently introduced Congressional legislation commonly known as the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Part IV articulates the numerous reasons why neither state nor federal attempts to control on-line gambling will be effective. Finally, Part V argues that, instead of ineffectually prohibiting Internet gambling, the state and federal governments should accept it as a new form of entertainment and regulate it much like current, legalized forms of gambling.
Recommended Citation
Scott Olson,
Betting No End to Internet Gambling,
4 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(1999).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol4/iss1/3