Is It Time for Legalized US Gambling?

There comes a time when every parent needs to acknowledge reality. We all attempt to educate our kids to make wise choices in their lives, have a clear understanding of limits and boundaries whist still encouraging them to take all the opportunities that come their way. We understand that we can't keep them cocooned in bubble wrap and need to prepare them for an adulthood based not in utopia but in reality.

It seems that we can apply the same rules of pragmatic parenthood to the responsibilities of the state. The steps currently being take to regulate online gambling have elicited opinions at both extremes on the scale and at all points in between.

US Gamblers are Already Active

Most people readily accept the fact that online casinos exist across the globe and that US citizens can, and indeed do, participate in a range of gambling pursuits that are currently 'banned' in the US, such as poker, roulette and craps.

Wily US players can gain access to many international online gambling sites. However, with the current online gambling ban in place there is no 'winners' tax' for the government, and indeed its citizens, to benefit from. This is estimated at $42 billion dollars over ten years.

Play Safe and Generate Tax Income

Perhaps the time has come for Congress to recognize that its citizens are not longer in need of 'elementary' style paternalism. That in order to operate in an increasingly global society, where they have access to all sorts of previously 'banned' activities, they require a different style of 'parenting'. What people really need is a range of safe online gambling options, endorsed and licensed by the US government and which ultimately provide tax benefits for the population.

An Opportunity not a Threat

Legalizing gambling is all too often seen as a threat when in fact it is an opportunity. Aside from the well-used tax revenue argument, there are many more reasons to regulate and license online gambling in the States:

It is a great opportunity to put quality education programs in place about gambling safely as well as handling addiction. US citizens are already active gamblers, and have the potential to abuse legal forms of gambling such as land based casinos, lotteries as well as illegal online gambling. It would therefore be beneficial to offer enhanced and more widely available gambling guidance and support.

A regulated industry also puts in place customer safeguards and isolates the more unsavory sites which pose a risk to customers in terms of financial transactions and fair play.

Ultimately regulation is an opportunity for the US government to demonstrate maturity and deal with the modern world face on.