Types of Online Gambling
Types of Online Gambling
Online gambling is any type of gambling conducted via the internet. This includes online casinos, poker and even sports betting. The first online gambling website open to the public, was ticket selling for the now infamous Liechtenstein International Poker Tournament in October 1994. In this the participants paid a set fee, to gamble for real, instead of playing virtual poker for virtual money. While it is debatable whether online gambling can ever be legalized throughout the whole of the United States, there are at least a handful of states where online gambling is legal.
While online gambling websites are scattered across the country, the states where they are legal vary from state to state. However, there is still an argument as to whether or not all states have laws that make online gambling against the law, or only a few that actually do. Those that do not make gambling a crime, but rather treat it as a form of non-profit activity, are called “repressive” states. The ones that treat online gambling like a real form of gambling, and make it a crime, are known as “concentrated”. For example, in Maryland, all states have some sort of law regarding gambling, as well as the collection of “horse racing” winnings.
Most states regulate gambling in one way or another, however, some states have no laws at all on internet gambling. A notable exception to this would be the state of New Mexico, which has no tax at all on gambling or anything related to gambling. This exception does not extend to online gambling, however, as all online gambling is regulated by separate taxes, which are collected by individual state revenue offices. The states that do not have any laws regulating gambling generally feel that it is not the business of the state to dictate what a consumer chooses to do when they are using a computer or any other means of communication. Some feel that people who choose to gamble on the internet should be monitored by the state, as it may create a dangerous situation for those who are using the internet to facilitate personal affairs.