Two US Senators Oppose Online Sports Gambling

Published: Saturday, July 25, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

Republican senators from Utah and Arizona, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Sen. Jon Kyl have been active lately in their attempts to influence the outcome of the proposed repeal of the prohibition on online gambling in the USA. In a letter sent to the U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder they strongly oppose the challenge to the Federal law prohibiting the expansion of state licensed and regulated sports wagering, conducted by the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA).

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey last March seeks to overturn the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1991 (PASPA). That Federal law barred all but four states, Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon from offering state licensed and regulated sports wagering. Delaware is set to revive sports wagering in its casinos this fall and cash strapped New Jersey wants to raise tax revenues by offering regulated sports wagering at its casinos and online to state residents.

The senators wrote, "We are writing to express our concern regarding the efforts in both Delaware and New Jersey to challenge Congress' consistent and long-held prohibitions on sports wagering," adding, "While the efforts in these two states vary, they both threaten to greatly expand sports gambling and undermine the integrity of our national pastimes. We urge the Department of Justice to defend and enforce the existing federal prohibition against sports betting and take the necessary action to safeguard amateur and professional sports."

iMEGA chairman, Joe Brennan Jr., said in response to the letter, "While I respect and share the senators' desire to uphold the integrity of the games we love, the fact is their way, opposing state regulated sports wagering, leaves an estimated $380 billion sports wagering market out there unprotected, with no oversight, and at the mercy of criminal elements that are far more able to try to affect the outcome of a game than if the state stepped in and took the business away from them." "The senators and the leagues can make their pronouncements about "integrity", and then stick their heads in the sand," Brennan concluded, "because that's the only vantage point from which the current unregulated marketplace is preferable to a state-regulated sports wagering market."