Senator Suggests Using Online Casino Taxes to Fund Health Care
US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon may have drawn the online casino regulatory bill authored by Barney Frank into the national consciousness. The Frank bill has languished, neglected while lawmakers deal with the need to address the economic situation; but Wyden proposed this weekend that the revenue collected from Internet gambling regulation be earmarked to cover costs of proposed health care programs.
Wyden says the revenue from online gambling could be used to increase subsidies provided to low-income citizens under the America's Healthy Future Act. A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers determined revenue from taxation of online casinos could amount to as much as $62 billion over ten years.
The Frank bill was expected to advance to committee for review much earlier this year, but has sat waiting while Frank's Financial Services Committee debates regulations to oversee the unstable US economy. But attaching the bill to an issue as prominent as health care may help raise the profile on the online gambling question.
"We applaud Senator Wyden's proposal to collect and put to good use tens of billions in Internet gambling revenue that would otherwise be lost in the underground marketplace," said Michael Waxman of the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. "The Senate Finance Committee should approve the resolution, finally putting to an end a failed prohibition on Internet gambling."
Under the current unregulated state of online casino gambling, billions of dollars in potential revenue goes uncollected while US consumers have no protection from fraudulent websites.
