Utah Says States Should Decide Online Casinos Legality, Not Feds
Utah legislators have seen the future in the US, and their vision is of the repeal of the UIGEA and the legalization and regulation of online casinos. The pressure to relent on the failed ban is powerful and coming from many sources, including the European Union and the World Trade Organization, the US financial system, anti-censorship groups, and civil libertarians.
But to many Utah residents, federal acceptance of online gambling would be an ominous event. Legislators such as state Representative Sheryl Allen worry that US regulation of Internet gambling, and pacts with other countries cementing their right to compete, would force Utah to allow gambling.
Allen and other Utah lawmakers are considering House Joint Resolution 1, which asks the federal government to leave decisions on gambling to the states. Of course, the only way to allow states to make this move, which clearly is the method prescribed by the Constitution, is to lift federal laws like the UIGEA.
Just as Utah leaders hold, laws determining gambling rules are within state prerogatives, just as alcohol Prohibition was. Removing the UIGEA, and accepting legalization and regulation of gambling on a federal basis, does not mean each state will be forced against its will to permit online gambling.
Instead, states like Utah, which do not allow any form of gambling, would be within the WTO rule and the General Agreement on Trades and Services to not permit a service which is illegal throughout the state. Only states which host gambling will be forced to accept competition from a free market.
Sherman Bradley, senior gaming analyst for Online Casino Advisory, says, "Removal of the improperly instituted federal laws does not mean the passing of an inverse law. It merely means the absence of a law, thus allowing each community to make its own decisions, rather than have them forced upon them. As ending Prohibition did not force every county to legalize liquor sales, neither will ending the online casino ban."
Utah citizens can sleep easier, knowing they will retain the right the rest of the country is seeking to recover, the right of self-determination.
