State Lottery Board Leader Calls for Creation of In-State Online Gambling Laws Before New Federal Rules are Made

From the CAP News page:

September 30, 2009 (CAP Newswire) -- Some political leaders in the U.S. state of Iowa are trying to get new online gambling laws passed before new regulations are implemented at the national level, as three existing bills in the U.S. Congress seek to do.

The state should “keep its options open and develop plans to ‘protect its borders’,” Iowa Lottery Chief Executive Officer Terry Rich commented on Tuesday.

According to an article by William Petroski in the Des Moines Register, Rich is concerned that Representative Barney Frank’s current bill that seeks to establish a regulatory framework allowing licensed (and taxed) Internet gambling at the national level will impose unwanted laws on the state.

“Based upon what we are seeing, I think that the federal government may pass something. Obviously, our job as employees of the state…is to make sure that our elected officials know that if it does pass, what impact it might have for the state,” Rich said in the article.

The action follows similar initiatives by other states in recent weeks, including California, to create their own online gambling laws before the federal government does it for them.

To read the original article at the Des Moines Register, click here.