Iowa Gambling Bill Sent to Governor

The attempts of the US state of Iowa to pass an amendment to its Smoke-Free Act of 2008 that will include casinos in the smoking ban failed and in a surprise move an extensive bill on gambling was passed.

The bill was approved by an overwhelming majority of 72-21 votes for the bill and sent to the Governor of the state for approval.

The new bill includes provisions for making online wagers on horse racing from the comfort of their own home.

To the surprise of all those involved the bill was passed without too much of a debate and voting representatives seemed to have very few questions regarding it.

Republican representative Peter Cownie said "I was surprised there weren't more questions" and Des Moines, chairman of the state government committee and the assigned floor manager of the bill noted that representatives were not eager to discuss the bill and it was passed with little objections.

Moines also stated that it was no easy task to get all those that are involved in horse racing to agree to a specific line of legislation. He said "I was really pleased that we were able to get a lot of those groups in agreement – the horse breeders, the tracks, all the different interests"

We can only speculate that the growing debate in the US regarding the legalization and regulation of online gambling coupled with the events of Black Friday that drew a lot of criticism towards the federal government over its actions, must have resonated with Iowa state representatives and they opted to follow states such as Washington D.C. in approving measures for some form of intrastate online gambling.