TheSpread.com

It's a constant cat and mouse game. The church and Las Vegas don't want online gambling and between them they have a lot of money and in turn a lot of power to influence the US Government.

A couple of states are trying to test the waters but honestly I don't see anything significant happening anytime soon. In the meantime it will be more of the same, the sports books will keep trying to find a way to service the US market and the government will continue to do their best to make it hard for them to do that.

FYI sports books aren't under attack so to speak. The way they are harmed is by the government closing off the ways the sports books can get money in and get money back to the players. The government doesn't need to go after any sports book in particular to hurt them, all they have to do is block the money and that kills two birds with one stone.

Since most of the sports book all share banks and processors when either of those links in the chain go offline that is why you hear about people getting bad checks or getting the runaround when trying to get a payout. The sports books want nothing more than to pay you in a timely manner, it's good for business. But because of how complicated it is to move money that's just not possible like it was before the US passed the UIGEA.

Offshore sports books and online gambling are essentially the same thing as it pertains to American's. Online gambling only means something else if you aren't a US citizen.

I have been doing this close to 15 years and have seen the industry start, seen it on the verge of collapse and everything in between. Being so deeply woven into this business I can tell you that your opinion is that of a lot of people but it's not correct.

Organized religion has long been an opponent of not just online gambling but gambling in general. I can Google the church and their position on gambling and get a million hits from all over the world. It's well know that Christians and Catholics are opposed to gambling and consider it a sin. Just because you don't hear it at mass doesn't mean it's not something on their radar. Further to that end, religion sends millions upon millions of dollars a year to Washington to lobby for their beliefs (which gambling is one of). Religion has a platform just like Wall Street, big oil and tech.

If there wasn't such well funded opposition to online gambling you would already see it in the US. It's a multi-billion dollar business and the US is choosing to miss out on it rather than bring it in, regulate and tax it. The infrastructure already exists for inter-state wagering and taking a piece of it could create thousands of US jobs and pump hundreds of million dollars into the economy.

You have to ask yourself who else besides the Church has enough money and clout to block the US from flipping the switch on allowing online wagering and collecting all that tax money?

The term "offshore" is really irrelevant to this discussion. "Online" gambling regardless of where it takes place is still illegal in the United States so there has to be a reason the Government is willing to piss tens of millions of dollars a year away trying to stop it instead of legalizing it and taxing it. If there is one thing I know about anything it's that the Government likes money. I also know that the reason the Government does or does not do anything is because someone is lining their pockets to act or turn a blind eye.

So, if the Government is willing to turn down hundreds of millions of dollars a year in tax money that would be collected with legalization someone must be paying them to keep it illegal. When you run down who would not want everyone in the US with an internet connection to gamble online it's a pretty short list and an even shorter list of who has the means to keep online gambling prohibited.

I've been running this site for the better part of 10 years and been around gambling in one form or another for close to 20 so I think I have a pretty good handle on the industry. And the consensus among myself and my peers is that the same people who don't want drinking, drugs or prostitution also are the reason you aren't going to see licensed and regulated inter-state online wagering anytime in the near future.

I'm not knocking religion or religious people or anything like that, just stating the way it is. Organized religion is a very powerful force in this country and they put a lot of money every year towards things they want to see happen or in this case, not happen.