WASHINGTON, February 5: Backers of internet gambling have invited US lawmakers Wednesday to tax their profits so long as that would legalize their industry in the United States.``Right now we're helping Costa Rica. We're paying Costa Rican taxes. We're employing Costa Ricans. We'd like to come home,'' said Christine Walton, who represents Global Sports Connection, an internet gambling company that two Cleveland natives run in San Jose, Costa Rica.She and other proponents of internet gambling testified yesterday before the house judiciary crime subcommittee, which is considering a bill that would allow states to outlaw such gambling. Rep. Frank Lobiondo, sponsor of the bill, called the situation a ``virtual free-for-all'' that is an open invitation to crime and corruption.
Whether internet gambling is legal under US law is a matter of debate. For that reason, virtually all the estimated 130 cyber-gambling sites now in operation are based outside the United States in places like the Caribbean and CentralAmerica, said Sue Schneider, chairwoman of the Interactive Gaming Council.
She said the fledgling industry would welcome regulation, even taxation of their profits, in order to be recognized as lawful in the US.Under the bill sponsored by Lobiondo, whose district includes the east coast casino capital of Atlantic City, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, operators of gambling sites on the internet would be subject to fines or imprisonment.
So would individual gamblers.Testifying in support of the bill, anti-gambling activist Bernard P. Horn said accepting bets from a home computer encourages underage gambling, creates an opening for organized crime and increases the threat of compulsive gambling.``Internet gambling will multiply addiction exponentially,'' said Horn, director of political affairs for the national coalition against legalized gambling.A companion bill in the US Senate would outlaw internet gambling altogether, regardless of whether a state wants to make exceptions.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
