Pro Online Gambling Ad Campaign

If you browse the Web sites of the Washington Post, The Hill and Politico, you will likely find the following ad:



Other ads include calls to: Protect Consumers and Generate Billions, and Protect Children and Consumers.
The campaign is launched today.

The ads advocate regulating online gambling, presenting the economic excuse or justification of $62.7 billion in new revenues for the federal government in the first decade if it chooses to do so. Its main objective is actually to protect the millions of Americans who continue to gamble online despite government attempts to prohibit the activity.

The Obama administration, along with Congress, are busy with framing (and fighting over) a health care reform. Jeffrey Sandman, spokesperson for the SSIGI, presents this not as a problem for his cause but rather as a relevant political fact: the money that will be raised from a regulated industry will help pay for the reform.

SSIGI supports the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 (HR 2267) legislation. Congress is expected still to hold hearings over the Act during fall.