Posted on 04/21/2010 1:40:03 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
WASHINGTON — Americans looking to satisfy their gambling itch can do so now at the close to 1,700 casinos across the country. A bill in the House of Representatives could bring casino gambling to the approximately 86.8 million American homes with Internet access.
Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Jim McDermott, D-Wash., are leading a group that proposes to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is set to go into effect June 1. Their plan would legalize and tax online gambling.
"We have an activity going on illegally in this country and we're pretending it doesn't exist," McDermott said. Internet gambling "people have said 'We want to be legal and we're certainly willing to pay taxes,' and we need the money. On every count, this is a net positive."
The bill calls for a 6 percent tax on all deposits to be paid to state and tribal governments made by residents of their jurisdiction. For example, if someone living in Missouri puts $1,000 into an online gambling account anywhere in the country, $60 would go to Missouri's state government.
Additionally, 2 percent of all deposits would go to the federal government. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the bill would generate $30 billion for state and tribal governments and $42 billion for the federal government over the next 10 years.
"This is a huge boon to the state governments," McDermott said. "If you look across the country you're seeing programs cut. In Arizona, they just cut out a program for children's health for 40,000 kids. Here's a source of money" to keep that going.
Along with much-needed funds, Frank made a libertarian argument supporting new legislation.
"American adults want to be able to do what they want with their own money without the government interfering," Frank said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Guys this is a FEDERAL SALES TAX or VAT..
6% to States.. 2% to Feds...
Maybe more people will show up in Vegas if they start taxing internet gambling... LOL!;)
Another tax for the lower classes...
Gee, maybe they’ll also allow us to run up gambling debts on our credit cards. Maybe Obama will force the banks not to deny online gambling debts, just like with home mortgages.
Wow! The depths of arrogant hypocrisy knows no bounds with these people.
ML/NJ
When is the homebusiness run whorehouse law coming through then, Barney Frank? People want to be legal and paying their taxes, don't they?
Maybe we wouldn’t have Bawny Fag pushing a stealth tax disguised as a legalization of a vice if our guys hadn’t been so obsessed with criminalizing vices when they had the majority. Instead of taking principled stands on things such as SS reform, drilling in ANWR, and reining in Fannie and Freddie, they obsessed about online gambling, MLB steroid hearings, and Janet Jackson’s areola. No wonder Pelosi and Reid waltzed into the House and Senate leadership in 2006.
“American adults want to be able to do what they want with their own money without the government interfering”
which will pre-empt and take away business from all the Casinos that just set up shop here in Pennsylvania and were supposed to be the end to all our budget worries. (I kinda want to see a fist fight between Ed Rendell and Barney Frank over this....ooops....guess I can’t use the word “fist” where Frank is concerned....)
Offshore doesn't stop the feds anymore. What's needed is open source software something like encrypted e-mail but where each message is broken into blocks and stored in P2P servers such that it requires keys, maps, and many layers and remote unwrapping steps to access and assemble the data. No one knows who anyone is and can't find out. The initial killer app would be sports betting using an untraceable virtual currency. As internet speed improves it could grow into an entire tax-free underground economy with virtual web servers that no government could shut down without shutting down all forms of communication. The Italian mafia in NJ could get the First Virtual Bank of Sicily going and make a bundle.
Not sure that's true. As long as one can use a foreign computer, he can use that machine as if he were sitting there.
ML/NJ
The bank admitted that between 2000 and 2007 as many as 50 of its bankers traveled to this country from Switzerland every few months. None of them, including Birkenfeld, a U.S. citizen, was licensed to transact business in this country. They came with encrypted computers and met with each client to service accounts.
The bank even trained its bankers in avoiding detection by U.S. regulators.
UBS agreed to pay a $780 million fine, closed down its cross-border U.S. business and subsequently promised in a deal with Attorney General Eric Holder to turn over the names of 4,500 of some 19,000 American clients.
We need a virtual bank that can't be shut down and that can't turn in their customers because because they don't know who they are.
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