| GamblingPhD menu | Casinos, Yes; Online Gambling, No
November 14, 2007 It is common knowledge that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has been trying to convince people that he needs three casinos in his state. He has been pushing it for months, hoping to fix the gap in the budget and allow for more governmental spending. However, that is not the only thing that Patrick is pushing for; he is also trying to get online gambling made illegal.
Much to the surprise of many, in the same bill that would allow the state to bring in slots and casinos, the governor is pushing for it to be illegal for residents of the state to participate in online gambling. Any resident caught online gambling would receive up to two years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Many think that he is merely doing it to shut out the competition. If residents don�t have any other way of gambling besides his casinos, they would have to give their money to the state. However, if they allow online gambling, then they don�t have to make the drive to the casinos, they could do it just in their own backyard.
Patrick�s people are remaining mum on the subject, leaving many to wonder why he is behaving the way he is. Representative Barney Frank, who is attempting to get online gambling regulated and legalized, says that Patrick is merely giving his opponents leverage against him. Others think that the bill may get passed as people want gambling but may not necessarily realize the ramifications to online gambling that the bill is proposing.
If the bill does pass it will merely mean that Massachusetts has joined a list of other states that have passed online gambling bills. One has to wonder that if they can pass bills making online gambling illegal, why can�t they pass ones that make it legal? |
