Breaking news for residents of the state of Massachusetts. The newest version of a bill that the state government is working on will include a measure that criminalizes online poker and internet gambling. The house speaker Robert DeLeo called for a vote against internet betting in general in two weeks.
This isn’t the first time that the Massachusetts state government has tried to criminalize online gambling. Many groups and individuals have stood up against similar bills in the past and plan to do so on this bill as well. It isn’t above states in the U.S. to try to hide laws in the fine print in order to get them passed. In this case, the following lines of text were added to this most recent bill:
“Any person who knowingly transmits or receives a wager of any type by any telecommunication device, including telephone, cellular phone, internet, [or] local area network… or knowingly installs or maintains said device or equipment for the transmission or receipt of wagering information shall be punished.” What is the punishment suggested for the radical crime of playing online poker? “Up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $25,000.”
Now of course, there is some additional fine print to read as well. You are only a criminal in the state of Massachusetts if you decide to “transmits a wager to, or receives a wager from, another person or gaming establishment within or outside of the Commonwealth.” Talk about hypocrisy. It’s ok to lose your money on lottery tickets because that benefits the state. But if you want to lose your money on a different form of gambling, you need to go to jail because your have extra money and they want it.
Even better, as part of this bill, the state is will be issuing two Massachusetts casino licenses with a combined price of $200 million. So this totally isn’t about online gambling being bad. As long as you do it within the state at sanctioned areas, your not a criminal! Don’t say this isn’t about the money Commonwealth government because it so obviously is about the money. The one exemption? Law enforcement officers are allowed to set up accounts and bet so they can entrap people. Hurray!
The one good piece of news to come out of all this is the ongoing debate about slot machines with opens a path for any other quasi-legal fields of entertainment like online poker to have room to get the law relaxed for them as well.
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