News

Wednesday, May 09, 2007
US study on gambling?

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) has introduced the Internet Gambling Study Act (H.R. 2140). The bill calls for a detailed study by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences “of the issues posed by the continued spread and growth of interstate commerce with respect to Internet gambling, as well as the impact of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on Internet gambling in the United States.”

The study aims to address the following points:

  • A review of the existing federal, state, tribal, local and international laws governing various forms of Internet wagering, their effectiveness and “the extent to which such provisions of law conform or do not conform with each other;”
  • An assessment of the proliferation of Internet gambling, including an analysis of its availability and use within the U.S.;
  • The impact of Internet gambling on minors and compulsive gamblers and the availability of regulatory and technological safeguards to prevent or mitigate these impacts;
  • An assessment of the impact of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on the availability and use of Internet gambling in the U.S.;
  • An analysis of the potential for State governments to create a legal and regulatory framework for online gambling within their jurisdictions or among those jurisdictions where online gambling is legal;
  • An analysis of the potential impact of the WTO rulings regarding Internet gambling and the long-term impact on existing and future United States trade agreements under the General Agreement on Trade and Services; and
  • An analysis of the potential tax revenue that could be generated by a legal, licensed, regulated Internet gambling industry in the United States.

    The study must be presented to the President and Congress within a year of the contract being signed with the National Academy of Sciences.