Iowa legislation could be revolutionary, could be forgotten

In a legislative move that some (perhaps overenthusiastic) online gambling industry professionals are labeling as “pioneering” in scope vis-à-vis overturning current regulations in the United States regarding internet gaming, lawmakers in the state of Iowa have introduced a new proposal to help decriminalize such play in the state.

Beginning with the premises that 50,000 Iowans gamble online regularly and that unregulated casinos are hardly conducive to general consumer satisfaction, state rep. Doug Struyk put forth a proposal that would allow an Iowan to deposit with one of 17 state-approved casinos in order to play online. The would-be casino player would actually have to go to a casino in order to make a deposit and/or otherwise manage the online account, but could access the internet casino from home.

The entire operation would be regulated by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, and such a method would theoretically guarantee that the state had approved the website(s) in question along with concomitant consumer legal protections. Also included in the bill are  provisions for capping player deposits so as to prevent addictive behavior.

It’s a model that seems simple and foolproof enough to work, especially if Struyk’s re-labeling of “online gambling” as “account deposit wagering” sticks to cushion the moral blow. The feeling among online casino advocates is that such a system could be employed by any state with “bricks-and-mortar” casinos and/or poker rooms; some 27 states now have gambling on reservation land and only Tennessee is closed to all non-state lottery forms of gambling.

However, Iowa House majority leader Kevin McCarthy micturates on the parade a bit with his assessment that “I will tell you that in my judgment that would be the largest expansion of gambling in the history of the United States of America. There never has been a state that has done it and knowing that gambling bills historically are bipartisan and it takes a lot of work to get to 51 votes on a fairly limited bill, moving to the potential of allowing every home in the state to be licensed as a casino to gamble at home seems to me to be a fairly heavy lift.”

And, in the spirit of things, Struyk publicly put the odds on his bill’s success at 3/1 in the Sioux City Journal.