In the U.K. and Europe online scratch cardshave been providing winnings at an affordable cost for a long period of time since their introduction in 2009. U.S. potential scratchcard players are eagerly awaiting a change allowing scratchgames and other online casino games to become a reality again restoring their constitutional rights.
Daily changes in the U.S. are having a tremendous positive factor on the online scratch cards market. Not a day goes by without another U.S. state tying to set themselves up in line to enter the online scratch cards world and to enjoy the benefits that scratchcard gambling offers.
Online Scratch cards have widespread acceptance even amongst online gambling opponents as they are considered a softer form of online gambling.
Scratchcards give the legislators an opportunity to legalize online casino gambling without the fear of encouraging only professional gamblers. Online scratch cards also provide great social tax revenues that a scratchcard in the traditional sense has been providing for years.
The question as to whether online casino gambling becomes legalized or not is yet to be answered in the District of Columbia. Many are pondering if the nation’s capital should be the first government -run online gambling venture.
In theory online gambling is legal in the district due to a council member who passed some words into a budget bill which became law last spring when Congress refused to intervene. This in effect means that blackjack, online poker and other online casino games are legal.
This strange situation has lead to council members who oppose online gambling such as Jack Evans who chairs the committee which is considering a bill to repeal the law, to state that he is not concerned if D.C. becomes the first in the nation to legalize online casino gambling.
Interested parties such as D.C. Lottery officials stated to the council committee that they would be able to have an online website up within 30 days should they get the go ahead.
Many U.S. states are looking to online scratch cards to inject some much needed income revenues which make scratchcards a very attractive gambling option. Evans’s believes that the issue has to be reevaluated. Other council members looking to repeal the bill are Tommy Wells and 2 of the 12 council members. One of the opponents’ main concerns regarding online casino gambling is the fact that it could affect their existing contract with Greek-based lottery Intralot which is estimated at $39 million.
As we have been reporting the recent change of stance by the U.S. Justice Department’s stance on the Wire Act of 1961 basically allows states to legalize online casino gambling within their states except for sport betting.
Executive Director of the lottery, Buddy Roogow explained that the lottery has no plans to offer online slot machines as the district’s voters have rejected this in the past. Games would be offered for free for a period of 60 days after the launch to allow testing.
There would be strict control measures in place in order to verify that players are of 19 years of age and a weekly limit of $250 would be imposed for gambler to wager. These measures are aimed at attracting the recreational gamblers and not the heavy gamblers. IP addresses would also be verified along with GPS software to ensure that players are with the district borders and therefore able to gamble legally.
Online casino Gambling could bring in as much as $13 million over four years after Intralot take their 50% share.
Council member Michael Brown who was responsible for inserting wording into the budget bill and thereby theoretically making online gambling legal, still believes that the district needs to be in touch with the current market forces. He believes players in the district will play online poker within the district instead of spending and contributing to unregulated overseas websites.
Online scratch cards have long been considered a social pastime and many enjoy to play scratchcards as a recreational activity and not only as a gambling activity.