“I think we will be spending a lot of time with the Attorney General,” said Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden. “There are so many changes and policy decisions that we have to make. There is so much happening, it is just amazing.”

She said a U.S. Justice Department ruling last month dominated the discussion at the conference. The department reversed its interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act that banned online gambling and said state lotteries are not prohibited from offering online wagering within their state.

“That means we could sell lottery tickets online, people could buy their tickets from home and never visit a retailer and that also has an impact,” Plowman said. “What would that mean to a mom and pop store that depends on the traffic they get from selling lottery tickets? We have to answer a lot of questions.”

Rep. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, also attended the meeting held in Las Vegas. All three lawmakers had their expenses paid by the council, which is seeking to have Maine join the group. She said the meeting provided a huge amount of information about all sorts of gambling and many sessions focused on the Justice Department statement.

“This is big,” she said. “We need to bring in the lottery, we need to bring in [Gambling Control Board] Director [Patrick] Fleming, we need the Attorney General to be involved and we are going to have to make a lot of policy decisions.”

Valentino said there were also a lot of unanswered questions raised at the conference. For example, she said, some experts believe a state could set up an Internet gambling site for an international market even though they could not allow residents of other states to gamble on the site.

“There are policy implications, there are financial implications,” she said.

Rep. Douglas Damon, R-Bangor, said he was impressed at the expertise at the meeting and agreed the state needs to move swiftly to address the many policy questions raised by the Justice Department’s change of view.

“We’ve got two facilities in this state that could be impacted by an increase in Internet gambling,” he said. “Not that we don’t have Internet gambling now, because we do. Just go up to the university and look at all of the online poker games being played.”

Damon said at the conference it was clear about half the industry thought the development would be good, and the other half thought it would be bad. He said the state needs to carefully review all of the possible impacts on Maine and decide policy that is sensible.

“I don’t believe we are prepared to handle it now,” he said. “Not at all.”

Valentino agreed and said, as in many areas, the state is playing catch-up when it comes to technology. She said in Europe there is betting done from a person’s living room as they are watching a soccer match on whether the player will make a penalty kick.

“It’s all going to change,” she said. “We are going to see tablets like iPads that are handed to someone when they go in to a casino with all the games loaded on it. No more big slot machines, it will all be on one device.”

Plowman said the state needs to look at how it oversees gambling and consider if it should be placed under one agency. She said with more complex forms of gambling, the state will need to have better oversight and investigation capacity.

Damon said while there may be some policy questions that need to be decided during this session, he believes the scope of the issues warrant a separate committee or commission.

“Like with LD 1 where we had a special committee just to deal with regulatory reform, I think that’s what we need to deal with all of the gambling issues,” he said.

The three lawmakers will present their findings to the full committee later this week.

Source: Bangor Daily News

Supporters of legalizing online poker cheered the ruling but said it may create confusion and encourage the creation of a patchwork of state Internet gambling rules. Congress passed legislation in 2006 aimed at barring online gambling in the United States by prohibiting financial institutions from processing payments for online bets.

“I think that this ruling creates more confusion than clarity in the Internet gambling debate,” American Gaming Association President and CEO Frank Fahrenkopf  told National Journal in an interview.

Critics of the 2006 law say it has not prevented Americans from gambling online. Many Americans continue to gamble on websites based outside the United States, a situation that deprives U.S. players of consumer protections and state and federal governments of tax revenues, said John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance. Pappas and others say Congress needs to step in with federal online poker legislation.

Both Pappas’ group and the American Gaming Association favor legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, introduced a bill last year, though Fahrenkopf’s group has not taken a formal stand on it. Supporters say poker is a game of skill and can be more easily regulated online than other forms of Internet gambling.

Barton said while the Justice memo makes clear that playing poke online does not violate the Wire Act, the department’s interpretation of the law could lead states to adopt a variety of individual laws.

“If Congress doesn’t act soon we could end up with fractured rules and regulations that vary state to state, leaving more opportunity for fraud and fewer safeguards for players,” Barton, a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement. “I plan to keep moving forward with my efforts to move H.R. 2366 through the committee process, and I am confident it will be passed by the House and Senate – hopefully in this session.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also is reportedly working on online poker legislation and has been aiming to gain the support of Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who helped craft the 2006 anti-gambling law, according to industry sources and news reports. Spokesmen for both Reid and Kyl did not respond to requests for comment.

The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade has held two hearings on Internet gambling and is likely to hold at least one more to gather additional feedback from the Justice Department and other officials on the issue. A spokesman for subcommittee Chairwoman Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said she has not made up her mind whether she will support Barton’s bill, which must go through her panel.

Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he supports Internet gambling if it complies with the constitution and is focused in Atlantic City. The governor vetoed a previous online betting bill. This bill would let customers create online accounts with casinos. They would have to be in New Jersey when placing bets.

A spokesman for the governor could not say Monday whether Christie would sign the bill if it passes. A spokesman for Senate leadership said it won’t be clear until Tuesday whether there’s enough support to move forward quickly on the bill, and a spokesman for Assembly leadership said leaders would listen to Lesniak’s request before deciding on a course of action.

Nevada is already moving fast to capitalize on the ruling. Late last week, the state’s gambling regulators approved rules that allow companies in the state to apply for licenses to operate poker web sites. Caesars Entertainment Corp., which owns four of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos, and Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns half of the city’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, have already submitted proposals to be licensed in Nevada.

In the mean time, Connecticut’s governor, Dannel P. Malloy, speaking on the developments was concerned about the effect this could have on people who deal with gambling addictions.

“Listen, I’m not a big proponent of gaming. But what’s going to happen based on the change in position by the U.S. Justice Department … is that there’s going to be online gaming in the United States. So it’s not a question of whether it’s going to happen … (And if) all of the online potential within our state goes to companies that are outside our state, then obviously we end up the big loser.”

“We do spend about $1.9 million a year (to help problem gamblers),” Malloy told CT Post. “If you’re asking me do I think it’s foreseeable in the future we may need to spend more money, I think the answer is in the affirmative. What the right level of money is and what the actual challenges will be remain to be seen. But at $1.9 million we’re big investors and we’re probably going to have to invest more.”

Source: CT Post.

Delaware isn’t discussing any specific offerings yet, but recognizes that it’s an effort that must be handled with care.

“There are certain sensitivities that we need to be aware of and cognizant of,” acting Delaware Lottery Director Vernon Kirk said Friday “Our retailers and such, we have to be able to include them in the process.” A too-hasty launch of an online system also could harm public perceptions if there are technical glitches, he noted.

“I think there’s a great potential here, and there’s an even more negative potential,” Kirk said. “You want to be right, right out of the gate, because if you’re wrong, it can have a really damaging impact.”

Now, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has brought the two sides together in hopes of forging a compromise that lawmakers will pass, according to Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for the leader. Steinberg wants to regulate cyber-gambling “while providing revenue — hopefully hundreds of millions of dollars — to help us reinvest in public schools, higher education and public safety,” Hedlund said.

The Justice Department has reversed its long-held opposition to many forms of Internet gambling, removing a big legal obstacle for states that want to sanction online gambling to help fix their budget deficits.

The new policy merely reverses the Justice Department’s longstanding position that all forms of online gambling are illegal in the United States. It does not necessarily pave the way for national rules governing online gambling.

But experts in gambling law said Saturday that the new policy does imply that states can band together to allow gambling across state borders. The exception would be online sports betting, which is explicitly prohibited under federal law.

More here and here.

By year’s end Washington D.C. hopes to introduce an Internet gambling hub that would allow Washington residents to play blackjack, poker and other casino-style games.

“They can do it from Starbucks, a restaurant, bar or hotel, or from a private residence,” said Buddy Roogow, executive director of the D.C. Lottery, who expects the new games to eventually raise $9 million a year. “That’s real money in D.C.”

It’s an idea gaining currency around the country: virtual gambling as part of the antidote to local budget woes. The District of Columbia is the first to legalize it, while Iowa is studying it, and bills are pending in places like California and Massachusetts.

But the states may run into trouble with the Justice Department, which has been cracking down on all forms of Internet gambling. And their efforts have given rise to critics who say legalized online gambling will promote addictive wagering and lead to personal debt troubles.

The states say they will put safeguards in place to deal with the potential social ills. And they say they need the money from online play, which will supplement the taxes they already receive from gambling at horse tracks, poker houses and brick-and-mortar casinos.

- Source: NYTimes.com

Internet gambling is the future of the casino industry, whether it’s approved at the federal or state level, a panel of online and brick-and-mortar casino executives said Tuesday.

And a New Jersey lawmaker predicted there will be a ballot question next year asking his state’s residents whether to amend the state Constitution to allow Internet gambling.

Speaking at the East Coast Gaming Congress, executives from two online betting organizations and Caesars Entertainment said the Internet provides the gambling industry its best opportunity for growth. But the prospect of a federal law permitting it appears dim in light of recent federal raids on online gambling sites.

More at ABC News.