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Massachusetts Votes To Make Online Gambling a Felony
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS --
The Massachusetts House overwhelmingly passed Speaker Robert DeLeo's expanded gambling bill today. While the plan will license two casinos as well as allow slots at selected race tracks, it also provides for jail terms for patrons of online gambling sites.
Like many politicians who lose sight of the gambling debate as a right of personal freedom, Massachusetts lawmakers seem most interested in producing revenue to support the bloated budget and massive government spending. Thus, while legal land gambling is created and regulated, online casinos are attacked as a drain on state income.
A clause in DeLeo's bill allows for thousands of dollars in fines, as well as a prison term up to two years, for simply being a customer at an Internet gaming site.
The bill passed by a vote of 120 to 37. Only two years ago, a similar bill pushed by Governor Deval Patrick failed by a vote of 106 to 48.
One of the bill's opponents, Representative Daniel Bosley, said he has no moral issue with casino gambling, but he thinks basing the state budget on gaming revenue is a mistake.
"This does not have to be our economic future," Bosley said. "I'm not morally opposed to casino gambling, it's just lousy economic policy."
The bill next advances to the state Senate.
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Recent Comments
| Posted by snoop on 04/15/2010 02:04:43 PM EST |
Nope. This clause was taken out of the bill in an amendment yesterday.
http://tinyurl.com/y6pm57d |
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