The Chairman for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) lobby group, Alfonse D’Amato, has written an editorial piece for a leading American newspaper calling for the regulation of online gambling as a way to offset the current economic crisis.
His article, The New Deal: Regulate And Tax iPoker, appeared in Washington, DC, newspaper Roll Call and proposes that new President Barack Obama fund a proposed economic recovery plans through regulating and taxing online poker rather than through normal tax increases.
“While business leaders and politicians debate how much, or how little, we should regulate the business community, the online poker industry and the millions of Americans who play on the Internet have been crying out for regulation and taxation,” wrote the former Republican Senator.
“The absence of government regulation and, in fact, the quixotic efforts to ban Internet poker has left US consumers vulnerable and left billions in potential tax revenues on the virtual poker table.
“Regulation of Internet poker does not equal an expansion of gambling in this country. Like it or not, that genie is already out of the bottle. The American market has spoken. There is strong demand for Internet poker and no reasonable government can or should stand in the way of adults competing in games of skill on the Internet.
“To the contrary, the government should step up and exercise control over the multi-billion dollar activity and respect the rights of the estimated 15 million Americans (and 100 million globally) who play and collect the revenues.
“This is not a new tax. It’s not politically risky tax increases. Regulation simply allows for the collection of taxes that are currently going overseas to the other countries that have already seized on the global poker phenomenon.”
Abstract from www.igamingbusiness.com
