David G. Schwartz, director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research, has lent his voice to a growing number of editorials being produced about the fight to outlaw or legalize online gambling. And Schwartz has a leg up on the others, as he is the author of the definitive book on the Wire Act, Cutting the Wire.
Schwartz, however, is calling for a new national commission to study online gaming in an editorial which ran in the Las Vegas Seven magazine.
Here are some excerpts:
“As I write this, a bill that would recriminalize online gaming—even where U.S. states have sanctioned and regulated it—has been introduced into Congress. Should the bill pass as written, the online gaming industries of Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, representing millions of dollars in investment and thousands of hours of regulatory effort, would be switched off immediately.
“With both sides ratcheting up their lobbying, though, it seems that Congress is painting itself into a corner without a way forward or compromise that will satisfy everyone.
“But maybe there is.
“A new national gambling study commission would help lawmakers genuinely learn more about the subject, and provide valuable short-term political cover for everyone.
“There are precedents here: Congress has studied gambling several times; the first national look at the topic, the 1950-52 Kefauver Committee, primarily considered illegal gambling and resulted in laws that restricted the transportation of slot machines and taxed sports betting—both attempts to stifle gambling, illegal and legal.
“The second major investigation, the 1974-76 Commission to Review the National Policy on Gambling, took place just as states were moving into the business via lotteries. While it expressed some reservations about illegal gambling, the commission concluded that states were qualified to choose for themselves their level of gambling, and even cautioned the federal government not to “hinder” state efforts to legalize it.
“The most recent major study, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, met from 1997 to 1999, as states were legalizing commercial casinos and signing compacts to facilitate tribal gaming. Initially, those in the industry feared that this group—with a healthy representation of known gambling opponents—would initiate federal action against casinos. Ultimately, however, the commission delivered a balanced report that recognized the potential of casino gaming as a positive force.
“Right now, to the extent that there is a coherent policy, it’s being shaped in fits and starts. Legislators are reacting (or not reacting) to messages from competing interest groups, with little chance to divine the true nature of the choices facing us, the needs of the country or the wishes of the electorate.
“A national study of gambling, in which full-time staffers could dig through the hype and hysteria to assemble a body of knowledge that accurately reflects where the country is (and where it can go, for better or worse) would give lawmakers something on which to base their votes.
“But this isn’t about not acting—it’s about gathering the intelligence needed to act decisively. Four years might seem an eternity to those who want immediate, radical changes, but it would get the industry—and the nation—the comprehensive study gaming demands.”
