The Need for An Omnibus Solution To Online Gambling

Home » Poker News » The Need for An Omnibus Solution To Online Gambling

Friday, September 2nd, 2016 | Written by Charles Washington

Gambling on the Internet continues to evolve, with new ways in which to win money being developed at a lightning pace. Daily fantasy sports, esports betting, and skin betting that involves wagering virtual items during esports have all emerged in recent years, and are posing difficulties for regulators.

With gambling operators consistently looking for new and innovative ways to generate revenues, the trend is only likely to continue, thus posing the question as to what is the best way for legislators to deal with these various forms of gambling? Here are the three possible ways that the issue could be approached:

1: Do Nothing

States have the option to simply ignore daily fantasy sports betting, esports and whatever else the gambling industry devises next. While this would certainly save the time needed to draft and vote on legislation, it does, however, leave consumers at the mercy of operators, and deprives the states of the chance to generate tax revenue.

2: Address Issues One by One

The approach that most states are taking is a piecemeal one in which they draft different legislation for each new gambling format that interests them, whilst ignoring other types of gaming which do not. California is currently doing this with separate bills for daily fantasy sports and online poker. New York also preferred this method of dealing with gambling with its daily fantasy sports betting bill already passed and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

While tackling gambling on a case by case basis does accomplish the goal of offering consumers protection and generating tax revenue, it is time consuming and inefficient. Furthermore, the approach has made it difficult to pass the legislation needed to get the job done in those states where there is willingness to regulate certain types of gambling.

3: Pass Omnibus Legislation.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is taking a completely different approach to the topic of online gambling. Instead of piecemeal legislation, the commission has recommended that Massachusetts pass a comprehensive omnibus bill that would create a specific regulator for all types of online gambling.

With this comprehensive approach to legislation, the newly formed commission would be responsible for keeping up with the latest innovations in online gambling. The bill would empower the commission to develop rules and regulations to govern new forms of gambling that are being offered in Massachusetts, provided that the rules and regulations fall within the powers of the commission as outlined by the legislation.

Omnibus Approach Most Practical

Compared to the other options, the omnibus method of legislating seems to be the most practical as allowing a commission to oversee the process means that the state can take then swift action to begin protecting consumers involved in new forms of online gambling. There will therefore be no need to wait upon legislators to feel motivated enough to act on such issues, and the congressional calendar would thereby not dictate when regulations could be put into place.

But What Constitutes Gambling?

There are, of course, some challenges to this type of omnibus legislation, the biggest of which is that definitions of what constitute gambling vary greatly. The law would need to plainly outline what types of activities would fall under the jurisdiction of the newly created regulatory agency.

In New York, for instance, daily fantasy sports betting (DFS) is now considered a game of skill, whereas poker, a game in which just as much if not more skilled is required to be successful, is classed as gambling. Whatever the mental agility employed to define something as gambling or not under state law, most states across the US authorize some kind of gambling, whether it be casinos, lottery, horse racing or other type of gambling variants.

That being the case, it has become increasingly difficult for such states to support their bans on online gambling by citing the ‘gambling is bad’ argument. Going forward, central to seeing progress on online gambling is the need to liberalize the antiquated gambling laws currently in place in US states, as well as ineffective federal laws such as the UIGEA and PASPA, which have done so much to block progress on the issue.