All In: The Federal Government’s Potential Jackpot In recent years, internet gambling, specifically online poker, has boomed. Large sums of money are being wagered everyday on peer to peer gambling websites. The battle wages on in the United States whether or not this activity should be legalized and taxed. It would seem that with an estimated 15 million Americans taking their virtual seat at the poker table coupled with America’s obsession with gambling in general would make the revenue generated from legalization of internet gambling a slam dunk. Unfortunately, while the revenue gained from taxation would introduce a new source of relief, there is a greater fear of societal issues this may cause. The debate on the social part of legalizing online gambling has been ongoing for over a decade now. It hasn’t been until recently that there has been more of a focus on what positives can come from legalizing, regulating, and taxing Internet gambling. With the budget deficit growing even larger in the midst of an economic downturn, there aren’t many areas where you can increase taxes, let alone tax something that hasn’t been previously taxed. What is great about poker and other online gambling is the demand is there, has been there, and will be there for the foreseeable future. If taxation were to occur now, the federal government would be getting in on the ground floor. As the country re-emerges from the economic downturn, Americans will have a greater disposable income. Naturally, some of that money will go to entertainment in the form of gambling which in turn will generate more tax dollars. Also, once legalization occurs, the many people that were on the fence about intrusting their money to off-shore sites will not have that dilemma anymore, further increasing demand, especially for sites based within our nation’s borders. Once U.S. based online gambling sites are established, they could contribute $20 billion to our GDP in the next five years. As a former fulltime poker player, I am in favor of the government taxing everyone involved in online gambling. I believe that the economic benefits far out-weigh the potential negative outcomes. Americans already have to ability to gamble in so many other forms, so why not online also. While I understand the concerns of underage gambling & compulsive gambling, I believe they can be effectively controlled. I do believe that one way or another in the future the government will dig in and get this done mainly because I do not see an effective way to stop it. As soon as I’m done with this paper, I could easily be playing poker online within minutes, guilt free, even though it’s illegal. Legalizing, regulating, and taxing online gambling, in my estimation, is a top four Texas holdem hand that the federal government has been dealt. As long as they don’t slow-play their hand, over the long run, they are going to see a decent to great return from this previously un-generated revenue. They will be able to put these revenues to good use, whether that is paying down the budget deficit or funding any number of programs that would have otherwise been cut and/or eliminated. All they have to do is sit down and play their hand. After all, you can’t win if you don’t play!

I used the following article as a basis for this paper.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-18/online-gambling-tax-may-be-jackpot-for-congress-lawmaker-says.html