US Gaming Lobbyists Invest Millions in an Effort to Influence Legislation

Information released by the US authorities claims that online gambling lobbyist groups spend around 33 million USD on lobbying representatives in their efforts to allow online gambling in the US. However it appears that the lobbyists are not in agreement as to what type of change they wished happened in the US with regards to online gambling in the US.

Most of the pressure is concerning the game of poker. The Americans are avid poker players and scores of US players have been playing online illegally with operators that are not licensed in the US.

Although most lobbyists agree that online poker should be regulated, they vary in the manner in which it should be regulated. Some believe the solution must be federal and it is about time to repeal current legislation banning online gambling, while others feel that each US State should have the right to decide whether it wants to allow online poker for its residents.

Gambling is a sensitive issue in the United States. Almost all the states allow for some form of gambling taking place within state lines. The only 2 states that ban all forms of gambling all together are Utah and Hawaii. Other states are divided into states that allow all forms of commercial gambling and those that only allow charitable gambling and state lotteries.

However when it comes to online gambling all the states are bound by federal legislation in the form of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that was passed in 2006 and prohibits offering online gambling of any type to US residents and criminalizes online gambling operators and financial institution transferring money between US residents and online gambling operators.