Online Betting Breakthrough For YouBet
Published: Friday, May 20, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
ONLINE BETTING BREAKTHROUGH FOR YOUBET
The $400K compensation must be
worth it...
The Tacoma News Tribune reported something of a breakthrough
for online gambling in Washington this week. It may not be big for online casinos,
but it does take a step in the right direction.
The State Horse Racing
Commission has agreed to license Youbet.com, an Internet gambling company that
for years had been *illegally* accepting millions of dollars in bets from Washington
residents.
The license allows California-based Youbet to accept online
bets on horse races around the country from Washingtonians and requires the company
to give the state’s horse racing industry a cut of each bet. The company
had been taking roughly $12 million a year in bets from state residents, according
to the commission.
As a condition of the license, Youbet. com must pay
the state $400,000 to compensate for wagers it accepted illegally in 2004.
It’s new turf for the state, which had banned all Internet gambling until
last year and is still feeling its way on who should be allowed to offer it and
how to regulate it.
Commission Chairman Gary Christenson said, "By
giving (Youbet.com) a license, we are insuring that the state of Washington is
getting the money that’s due it. If we didn’t give them a license, it
wouldn’t guarantee that they’d stop.”
Last year, the state
Legislature legalised another form of online gambling called “advanced deposit
wagering” on horse races. Youbet.com is the third company to get a state
license since the law passed.
Robert Leichner, the Horse Racing Commission’s
executive secretary, said it’s the job of the Washington State Gambling Commission,
not his five-member racing commission, to enforce laws against illegal Internet
gambling.
Ron Crockett, owner of Auburn’s Emerald Downs, the state’s
only top-tier horse track, supported the license for Youbet. Emerald Downs has
to sign a contract with Internet gambling companies before they become eligible
for a racing commission license.
