May 21, 2010 (CAP News Wire) – Because of this week’s hearing to discuss taxing online gambling in the U.S. — and also because of the looming implementation of the UIGEA, scheduled to go into full effect on June 1 — this week saw an avalanche of media coverage of iGaming in the mainstream press.
Most stories started with a summary of Wednesday’s congressional hearing on the idea of taxing online gambling but also went much deeper than that, exploring the reasons why online gambling is as controversial as it is today, an also doing a good job of educating any potentially uninformed readers about what the UIGEA is and the damage it may be doing to the American economy.
In the Boston Herald, some of Jim McDermott’s arguments at the hearing were printed. “Regulation and taxation have proven to be a better policy for our country when it comes to alcohol,” McDermott is quoted in the article. “The same is true for online gambling.”
High-profile British news source The Independent also weighed in — with an article featured on BusinessWeek, no less. The article spoke of a new political “realisation that the ban is not working mixed with the lure of tax revenues from a legalised industry.” The article includes a nice summary of what was said at Wednesday’s hearing, as well.
And then there’s the already-famous ABC News story in which Republican Senator Spencer Bachus — a longtime opponent of online gambling — referred to Internet poker as the “crack cocaine of gambling”. Thankfully, the ABC News article itself is more fair than Bachus, also including much more positive quotes from the likes of Poker Players Alliance Chairman Alfonse D’Amato and gambling expert Professor I. Nelson Rose.
And that’s not all: Other media heavy hitters like Reuters, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, CNET, The Seattle Times and The New Haven Register have also included coverage of Internet Gambling and the UIGEA debate in the past week.