More Obstacles for Online Casinos in the US
November 12th, 2010
This past October, the Republican party in the United States took control of the House of Representatives after picking up 60 seats in midterm elections. This is the largest gain in the House since 1948 for the Republicans. What does this mean for the online gaming community?
With President Obama’s Democratic Party loosing a great deal of control of the House, the Lower House of Congress and with minimum grasp of the U.S. Senate, both online gambling operations and regular land-based gamblers should be concerned as to what this will mean for the progress of American gambling laws. In 2008, when the new president was elected, the online gaming community was hopeful with the Democrat taking three chambers of government and placing majorities into both of the Congressional Houses.
However, these new results have largely dimmed the possibilities for positive changes in the next two years. Even though the Republican party has not been consistent about their view on online gambling, senior US Senator for the State of Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, has consistently voted against all previous gambling legislation and his state has been very unfriendly to offshore gambling. McConnell serves as an example for how the community can expect for Republics to react in newer, or even paused, legislations regarding the legalization of online casinos and gambling sites.
One of the positive figures to remain in office is representative Barney Frank, U.S. House Representative for Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, who has been an activist for the legalization of online casinos in the United States. These online gaming sites would offer the same options land-based venues have including poker tables, video slots and more. However, the new Republican force in the House is not likely to to take Frank’s proposals into consideration even when in the past he did have bi-partisan support.
