Massachusetts new bill includes online gambling ban

[mojo]

The govener of mass is submitting a bill today focused on allowing liscensing of 3 land casinos. Included is this little tidbit. This is confusing as Barney Frank is in mass too.

Placing, sending, transmitting, relaying wagers to another person prohibited under certain circumstances; penalties.
Any person who knowingly transmits or receives a wager of any type by any telecommunication device, including telephone, cellular phone, Internet, local area network, including wireless local networks, or any other similar device or equipment or other medium of communication, or knowingly installs or maintains said device or equipment for the transmission or receipt of wagering information shall be punished by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than 2 years, or a fine of not more than $25,000, or both.
This section shall apply to any person who, from within this commonwealth, transmits a wager to, or receives a wager from, another person or gaming establishment within or outside of this commonwealth and any person who, from outside this commonwealth, transmits a wager to, or receives a wager from, another person or gaming establishment within this commonwealth.
This section shall not apply to the use of a local area network as a means to place authorized wagers in a licensed gaming establishment, or use of said devices or equipment by the authority in it duties in regulating, enforcing, or auditing a licensed gaming operator.

http://www.pokersourceonline.com/new...e-gambling.asp

If this goes through, it's time to get out of taxachustts.

[The Buzz]

Barney Frank is very critical of the online gambling provision ...

"Why is gambling in a casino OK and gambling on the Internet is not?" Frank said. "He's making a big mistake. He's giving opponents an argument against him."

Patrick officials declined yesterday to explain the governor's rationale for including the provision in the proposed legislation. They also would not respond to Frank's comments.

"Several of the provisions of the governor's proposed resort casinos bill seek to clarify the laws relating to gaming in Massachusetts, including online gaming," said Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for the governor's chief gambling adviser, Daniel O'Connell, secretary of economic development. Others suggested the provision was included to make casino licenses more lucrative by preventing competition from online operators.

"If you were cynical about it, you'd think that they're trying to set up a monopoly for the casinos," said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Full story here ... http://www.boston.com/news/local/art..._patrick_bill/

[mojo]

I'm glad to see Patrick is getting some heat. This is the same Govenor that spent $12,000 (taxpayers money) on curtains earlier this year!

The new governor's public mea culpa came after a week of spiraling reports about his spending of taxpayer money, including $1,166 each month on a Cadillac DTS and $12,306 on new draperies in his office.

"Oh, yeah, we screwed up," Patrick told a horde of reporters, a day after promising to repay the state for office furnishings and a portion of the lease for his official car. "I am so sorry that we all have spent the kind of time we have on what we have spent time on, and I am sorry to have been responsible for that."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...p_on_spending/

[matted]

It is funny, as I read it:

This section shall not apply to the use of a local area network as a means to place authorized wagers in a licensed gaming establishment

So, the network in my house is a LAN. And last I checked every casino I promote is licensed somewhere.

Besides, it would still need to be passed by the state legislature and then, in theory, pass a constitutional challenge.

[The Buzz]

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2007/...ion/299688.txt

It isn't often we find ourselves agreeing with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., but on the subject of government-sponsored gambling, we are in accord: Liberals on both sides of the aisle "should not be so inconsistent."