Maryland Governor Against Online Poker Regulation

While many legislators made it clear on Tuesday that they were in favor of regulating online poker at the federal level in the United States, there are some in government who are against such measures – and not always because they’re against gambling on the whole.

For instance, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has asked Congress to stop its consideration of online poker regulation. However, O’Malley isn’t asking for this because of concerns over the risk of gambling addiction, or over concerns about children taking part in online gambling; rather, O’Malley would like to protect the lottery system in his state, and sees online poker as a competitor that would ultimately hurt his state.

“Such proposals would diminish significant sources of revenue for the states when we have already had to endure significant revenue reductions,” O’Malley said in a letter to the co-chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (also known as the “supercommittee”). “Historically, states have had the right to make their own decisions about whether to offer gambling and how to regulate the industry. These proposals would strip states of those rights.”

Currently, the Maryland lottery generates $519 million in tax revenue for the state each year. This ranks as the fourth largest lottery program in the nation.

At the moment, there are two separate but similar bills in Congress, each of which would call for a federal online poker regulatory system that would allow Americans to play against players from across the country. Subcommittee hearings were held yesterday, revealing what appeared to be broad support for the measure.

It is possible that measures could be added to such legislation to meet the concerns of governors like O’Malley. One idea that has been floated in the past is an opt-in (or opt-out) system in which each state could individually choose whether to be a part of the online poker network.