The odds can be easily manipulated and there is no guarantee that fair payouts will occur. Further, gambling on the Internet is apt to lead to criminal behavior. Indeed, Up to 90 percent of pathological gamblers commit crimes to pay off their wagering debts. In just one year, that number more than quadrupled, going from about 60 in late 1997 to now more than 260 according to some estimates. Not every problem that is national is also necessarily federal.
Internet gambling is a national problem AND a federal problem.
The Internet is, of course, interstate in nature. States cannot protect their citizens from Internet gambling if anyone can transmit it into their states. That is why the State Attorneys General asked for federal legislation to prohibit Internet gambling. I strongly support Senator Kyl s Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Prohibiting this form of unregulated gambling will protect consumers from fraud and preserve state policies on gambling that have been established by our citizens and our legislators.