The American Gambling Association is speaking out in favor of legalized online poker and its President and CEO Frank Fahrenkopf says “This is a unique industry in which we want regulation and strict laws to keep the industries integrity and for the protection of the consumers.” As of now, the current online gambling laws in the US do not protect players and has no safeguards set up to prevent fraud, cheating and any other illegal acts like operator theft. The proposed legislation that Senator Harry Reid is trying to introduce will change all this and bring in millions of dollars of revenue from gambling taxes that legalized online poker will bring.

The bill, if passed, would ensure that Federal authorities as well as State lawmakers would have the ability to control all forms of online gambling. It would also ensure the rights of each individual State to choose whether or not they want to legalize online poker within their borders. Once a State decides to legalize online gambling within their borders, they would have the authority and resources to police all activity easily.

Another area that would be covered would come from the Treasury Secretary. It would have to research a list of known unlicensed online gambling sites and prevent them from operating in the US. The main reason this bill is needed is for player safety (besides needed revenue), because even though the anti gambling bill UIGEA was passed in 2006, millions of online gamblers still play online today with no protection from law enforcement. Off shore operators will still offer online gambling to players who wish to visit their sites and billions of tax revenue will leave the country when it could stay in the US where it is needed.