New Massachusetts Law Would Open New Casinos While Throwing Online Gamblers In Jail
from the place-yer-bets dept
Sometimes it's impossible not to be cynical about the political process and what's really going on behind the scenes. Sure, people will often ascribe the worst motives to various politicians when other reasons may be more accurate, but it's difficult to see how Massachusett's governor Deval Patrick can put forth this new bill on gambling with a straight face. It pushes for the opening of three new casinos in the state, while simultaneously banning online gambling (which the federal government is already working on). Federal attempts at banning online gambling, however, have focused on stopping credit card processing and stopping the casinos themselves. Patrick's bill actually goes against the gamblers -- threatening them with up to two years in jail and $25,000 in fines. It's difficult to see how this bill can be seen as anything but a plan to try to squeeze more money out of the new casinos by making licenses a lot more valuable by totally banning the competition.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: casinos, gambling, massachusetts, online casinos
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Another politician that doesn't get it
I'm a long time online poker player and the U.S. still can't stop us even with the "make the financial institutions stop us" law.
It is very easy to bypass this law. I buy phone cards with my credit card that my casino accepts for deposits of money. I could go on forever about this including the WTO ruling but I would bore the non-gamblers.
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I really don't get wtf the problem is...
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Drive to Any of the 5 State Borders
Yes 5 states!
Anyone who wanted to indulge and still obey the law could simply drive to any of 5 borders and using wireless, gamble their hearts away. Perhaps cruising out of the 12 mile limit, since it is a coastline state.
These options really aren't so out of the question - remember we are talking about gamblers.
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Mass...
Texas gets all the publicity for its sodomy laws, MA still raids peoples houses and arrests them for otherwise legal sexual activity(The "Paddleboro incident").
Massechusettes is a state that takes good ideas and totally F's them up.
The Excise tax: You are charged an excise tax based on the value of your car. All well and good for revenue until they tax you on cars you no longer own. You ave to jump through hoops to get them to stop taxing you the car you traded. Usually by the time you trade the vehicle, your excise tax is $25. With overhead figured, it costs the state about $125 to unf**k your tax, that shouldn't been assessed after you swapped the title.
Gun laws are draconian. Clintonian "assault weapon" ban still in effect. Registration is up to the local police chief regardless of criminal background. Racism and discrimination is rampant. Impossible for Asians and Hispanics in Lowell to get a registration regardless of criminal background and employment (I have afreind that is a CAPTAIN in the National Guard that was declined a permit because he was Vietnamese).
Contractors they hire for roadwork are so substandard, they don't even know what kind of epoxy to use. I'm no engineer, but stretchy epoxy seems like a bad adhesive to use on a load bearing anchor.
Supposedly a "Liberal" state, but alcohol can only be bought in a liquor store. Bars close at 1am Sunday morning because it is sunday. Public transportation shuts down at 11pm. Cambridge wouldn't alow an established (25 years)Alternative dance club(Man Ray) to reopen after renovations because they didn't want a fetish club in their town.
I can only imagine that when they finally allow Casinos , they'll probably have $30 parking, open 9-5 and closed weekends. More than likely they'll probably have $5 max tables and penny slots only. No smoking and no free alcohol.
If it wasn't for the obnoxiously high paying jobs here, I wouldn't be a resident. I leave the state for all social activity.
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Missing Point
Now the various states, like Massachusetts, will try to make it harder for online gambling so, like Mike pointed out, can get money off the licenses. They will also do it to try and get people to have to go to a real business in the state, so they can watch the money flow and get the tax money. If you gamble online with a site that is either in another state or country, your state doesn't get to reap the benefit of the taxes on the money you spend.
Follow the money and you will usually find your reason.
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Re: Missing Point
Of course its fine to have lotteries, horse racing, dog racing, slot machines in 32 or more States. And let's not forget Vegas home of gambling here in the USA.
It's all about the potential money that the Government is losing its that simple. Regulate the industry and have companies that want to do business with USA customers pay a yearly licensing fee.
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Big Business
www.pokerplayersalliance.org
-Mush
www.mushmemoirs.blogspot.com
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Simple, but Stupid...
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Reasons are simple, in ascending order of importance:
*Tax revenue
*Licensing revenue (while they can still charge for local casino/gambling licences they are worth a lot less in a market that allows online gambling)
*Lobbyist funding (read "bribes") to individual politicians and political parties by the local/national casinos (the casinos give them fortunes)
(Reason licensing is rated higher than tax is because the opportunities for politicians and Gov. Officials to get direct and indirect kickbacks are greater during the initial licensing application period and renewal time)
But these are never the stated reasons as they would be a hard sell to the voters, so normally the politicians say things like (again in ascending order)
*Online Offshore casinos fund Criminal Orgs (Yeah sure they do, especially the ones that are listed on leading stock exchanges around the world)
*Online Offshore casinos fund Terrorists Orgs (See above)
*Online Offshore casinos lead to irresponsible gambling (As if Vegas and co really stop you if they think you are losing to much)
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it's all about the money
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Americans Last
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Barney Frank
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MA
The reason casinos haven't opened here yet is because all the Mc's can't figure out how to divy up the money in a way that they're happy with yet.
My dad owned a business, let's say an arcade, in a MA city... The local paper gave him bad press until he hired a police officer for $45/hour 'duty' every friday and saturday night. Then the bad press stopped. The cop just sat there in a chair all night and drank free soda. You can't do business in this state without some sort of shakedown from the public sector.
Ever wonder why sports betting, of all things, you can only do in Las Vegas? u can do anything else in Atlantic City, any of the Indian casinos, but not bet on a football game. Why is that? Because the people who were making money on it refused to ever give up control over it.
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Re:
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Ham
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RETARDED
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