Internet Gambling: "Live Free or Die" Governor has ApprehensionsWhen all the US governors were sent out emails inquiring as to their stance on Internet gambling and, more specifically, the bill to have an Internet gambling law repealed, only one governor responded - New Hampshire's Governor John H. Lynch.
New Hampshire may be the "Live Free or Die" state as many of us learned from last year's season of The Sopranos, but freedom to gamble online? That might be a different story.
A spokesperson for Governor Lynch:
"Governor Lynch has not yet had an opportunity to review this piece of legislation. Governor Lynch would want to see compelling evidence that the legalization of gambling would not harm New Hampshire's quality of life before he would consider allowing any form of gambling to take place in our great state."
Congressman Barney Frank's bill to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act past in October has been met with mixed reactions. Many in the well-entrenched online gambling community see the proposed legislation as a means of even deeper "protectionism" by US officials already being accused of such by the World Trade Organization in failing to abide by a decision related to Internet gambling and fair trade.
"The one thing I fear the most about the Frank bill is that it will put the issue on everyone's radar (every governor that is) and then become a political issue at election time: vote for me and I will help save your children from the evil's of online gaming," comments one online gambling industry analyst who wished not to be named. "Then we are all screwed. All these pro 'regulation will save poker' idiots will discover just how much trouble it is to invite the government into your living room. I don't know what will save poker, but I sure know it ain't regulation."
The banking sector is supposed to have a system in place that would require banks to prevent any known online gambling transaction, though there is nothing to suggest such enforcement is even remotely under way. Smaller to medium size banking institutions have already warned that such implementations would be too costly and impossible for them to execute.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com
Originally published May 25, 2007 9:53 pm ET
