Online Poker Bill Introduced in Illinois
In March, two years after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) cracked down upon major online poker rooms Absolute Poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker, an online poker bill was introduced in the state of Illinois. If passed into law, the bill would legalize online poker and enable operators of online poker gaming services to apply for Illinois online poker licenses.
According to a report that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the online poker bill has given rise to a number of controversies, chiefly because PokerStars was one of those online poker rooms cracked down upon by federal law-enforcement agencies. PokerStars founders and chief executive officers were also charged on multiple counts of illegal gambling, bank fraud, and money laundering. Besides, a number of professional poker players won hundreds and thousands and sometimes even millions of dollars playing online poker at these offshore online poker rooms and did not pay taxes to the state and federal governments. Players registered at online poker rooms also became victims of unscrupulous hackers, who gained access to their accounts and cheated them of their money.
Illinois is currently steeped in financial mire and is badly in need of revenue. The state is reeling under debts, budget deficits, and unfunded pension liabilities for union members and public employees. The state is eager to device ways of generating much-needed tax revenue. By 2014, Illinois will be owing vendors as much as $2 billion.
The sponsor of the Illinois online poker bill, which is also known as the Senate Bill 1739, is Terry Link. If passed into law, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker will apply for Illinois online poker licenses. According to one of the provisions in the bill, only those online poker rooms convicted of crimes will not be granted online poker licenses.
In 2012, PokerStars signed a settlement deal with the US federal government, according to the terms of which it paid the US government $731 million and the federal government dropped all charges against it. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, now the sister site of PokerStars, were never convicted of any crime in the US, and this makes them eligible to apply for Illinois online poker licenses.
If Illinois grants online gambling licenses, it could look forward to annual taxable revenue of anywhere between $400 million and $1 billion. Illinois was the first US state to legalize online sale of lottery tickets, which became possible because the DoJ announced that sale of tickets to lottery games operated by the state is legal.
The online poker industry is today worth $33.8 billion. If various US states pass online gambling laws and grant online gambling licenses, online poker players are not the only ones who will benefit. Several online casinos, online racebooks, and online sportsbooks will also be established, generating jobs for residents and tax revenue for states.
Those who oppose the move to legalize online gambling say that online gaming legalization would take casino gaming within every home with Internet. However, Senate Bill 1739 is yet to be passed into law.
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