Thursday, June 04, 2009

Economic Recession Could Potentially Lead to Reverse in Online Gambling Ban

Today, it seems that the only thing the government likes doing more than saving the economy is finding new sources of tax revenue. In recent weeks, President Obama has discussed more stringent penalties towards companies using offshore tax havens.

More recently though, the United States government has decided to take a second look at the potential revenue from online gambling. According to the Wall Street Journal, a senior White House Democrat introduced a bill in early May that would “suspend rules banning Internet-based gambling and seek to regulate it instead.” The article continued by quoting a recent study published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, that claims the U.S. Treasury could gain $48.6 billion annually by taxing online gambling sites.

This is not the first time the bill was put forward. It was originally introduced in 2006. It may, however, work this time, since the government is desperately trying to bring in money almost as quickly as it is spending it. If passed, the bill would go into effect in December.

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