Gambling Tax Hearing Wasted
Earlier this year Representative Jim McDermott had introduced the bill Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2010, listed as HR 4976. The bill proposes to tax online gambling in order to generate revenue needed by the state. The bill came up for hearing on May 19. There was no vote. The bill did not move forward to the next stage. In short the hearing was a total waste of time. Everyone simply repeated what they have been saying the last two years. The movement for regulated online gambling remains on life support waiting for someone to turn off the switch.
McDermott said that Internet gambling being illegal is making no difference to American poker players. They are simply gambling at offshore online poker rooms. Legalization, regulation and taxation of online poker will bring the revenue to American coffers. He pointed out that the federal authorities, the states and even the tribes would benefit from this. Barney Frank said that he would bring his bill, HR 2267, before the House Financial Services Committee in July. So many dates have been given and then postponed for this bill that it is doubtful if anyone takes it seriously. In any event the UIGEA regulations come into force on June 1 and Frank’s statement is a bit like trying to shut the door after the horse has bolted. The only minuscule achievement of the hearing was that staunch online gambling opponent, Oregon Republican Representative, Earl Blumenauer, became the 70th co-sponsor of Frank’s bill.
Californian Republican Representative Wally Herger and Virginia Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte made the usual noises against McDermott’s bill. In times of economic crises the Congress has more urgent matters to attend to was their view. They completely ignored the fact that taxing online gambling could at least in part alleviate the economic problem. However, the cruelest cut of all came from Democratic Representative Shelley Berkley from Nevada. Though she recently announced support for the legalization of online gambling, she opposed taxing the revenue generated from it. Without the carrot of tax revenues legalization of online gambling can never become a reality.
