Missouri Representatives Want Legal Online Gambling

Missouri’s Congressional delegation has put its weight behind efforts to regulate the online gambling industry on a federal level. Representative William Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan have both signed onto Barney Frank’s bill to repeal the UIGEA and regulate the online gambling industry. Both lawmakers have criticised the UIGEA ban and said that the law attempts to prohibit online gambling without facing the reality that US citizens will find news ways to gamble online,

The Congressmen were also part of the group of lawmakers that signed the appeal to the US Treasury Department to delay the implementation of the UIGEA until Congress has a chance to get their bills to regulate and license online gambling on to the House and Senate floor.

“We should not be so naive to think that we are going to do away with gambling by passing that
(UIGEA) law,” Clay said. “It’s (online gambling) the kind of thing that requires clear rules
and regulations so that it functions well,” Carnahan added. Most importantly, the lawmakers
want the US government to take advantage of the massive amount of revenue that could be
generated and put back into the economy and special government programs for US citizens.
“I think $42 billion is a significant sum that the federal government needs to fund some
of the programs that are worthy and that Americans benefit from,” stated Clay.