Senator Dean Heller made headlines this week when he called a meeting with fellow Senators and other experts about the dangers of online gambling.
He recently met with the Senate Commerce Subcommittee involved with Consumer Protection and gave his opinion on the subject. Heller stated that federal legislation needs to be passed and his reasons are primarily to stop terrorists and money laundering operations.
A Las Vegas Sun report released a statement by the National Director of the Fraternal Order of Police, Chuck Canterbury, who believes that “terrorists in Afghanistan have been using online gaming to launder their funds.” The statement from Canterbury also had him reiterating that “there is no legal or regulatory framework for law enforcement to shut down this activity.”
Those attending the meeting, both senators and other experts, seemed to be unanimous in their favor of the UIGEA but were critical of the re-interpretation of the Wire Act of 1961 in 2011, which gave individual states the option to legalize transactions of online gambling on their own accord. Heller stated:
“The reason the administration changed this was so their friends in Illinois and New York could put their lottery tickets online. With one decision, the DOJ effectively rendered all laws that have been on our books, put together by members of Congress over 50 years…useless to regulate and stop Internet gambling.”
Heller, along with many others, wanted to further discuss the potential problem or danger of online gambling. Heller stated that children and problem gamblers need to be kept from ‘getting caught up in this web.’ During the meeting, Thomas Grissen, the Chief Executive Officer of Daon, showed how technology can be used to keep children as well as problem gamblers offline.
His company’s facial and voice recognition programs have been created to help thwart the above-mentioned problem; however, no companies that have been legalized for gaming licenses in the states have used such technology to screen their players just yet. It also presents the “biometric” sharing of data that the public might not be too thrilled about, especially in lieu of the Edward Snowden/NSA leak situation that has had many Americans in an uproar about their privacy.
Regardless of what happens, it seems fight for online gambling continues and we can only sit back and see what legislators decide to do. For us gamblers, we hope that a clear decision is made and we all have the right to enjoy licensed and regulated online poker and casino options when we choose – without the supervision of “Big Brother.”
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