Coming To A State Near You-Online Lottery Tickets

Posted on January 24th, 2012

Thanks to a recent interpretation of the 1961 wire act several states are moving ahead with plans to sell lottery tickets on the internet. The justice department reversed course and said that online gambling is legal within state borders. The lottery issue was highlighted when two states, New York and Illinois, asked the justice department to clarify the law regarding the sale of online lottery tickets. The justice department responded by saying that the wire act, which had been used by previous administrations to ban online gambling, only banned sports betting. Whittier law professor I. Nelson Rose said that the decision was an early Christmas present from the Obama administration to states burdened by massive deficits. Rose stated “What that means is [that] states are now free to do just about anything they want. There’s more than 44 lotteries in this country. They are all looking at ‘Let’s go online immediately if we can.’ They are all looking at their state statutes.”

Illinois Lottery director Michael Jones  said that his state lottery is getting ready for online lottery ticket sales. Jones says that Illinois residents should be able to purchase Lotto and MegaMillions tickets online by early spring and Powerball tickets later in the year. Jones stated “The issue here is very simple. All the state Legislature wanted to do was to have the lottery mirror people’s buying habits with the kind of retail channel everybody uses to buy plane tickets, books and concert tickets.” Some states are questioning whether the ruling means that they can offer other online games such as poker and bingo. Washington D.C. has already legalized online poker and bingo.

University of Illinois professor John Kindt is not happy about the justice department’s decision and called the move ‘outrageous.’ Kindt believes that internet gambling will take money out of the consumer economy and said it is like pouring gas on the recession. Kindt believes that online gambling will lead to crime, bankruptcies and gambling addiction. Kindt stated “This will put gambling in every living room, at every work desk and at every school desk. People will literally be able to click their mouse, lose their house.” Frank Fahrenkopf, CEO of the American Gaming Association,  says that adequate protections are already available and cited the thriving online gambling industries in the UK and France. Fahrenkopf said “We’ve been able to see, with the regulatory reforms that they have put in, that it can be provided in a very safe way to protect underage kids from getting online and gambling, and you can provide, by tracking, great assistance for those who can gamble responsibly.”

Most lottery experts believe that the ability to sell lottery tickets online will increase sales and attract young players. Players would no longer have to stand in long lines when jackpots are huge. In the UK where online lottery sales are legal players cited convenience as the most attractive aspect of online lottery ticket sales.
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