Online Poker Report – When the Department of Justice rewrote its interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act in 2011, a number of legislators rushed to their state capitols and started hammering out ways to pass online gambling bills.
One state that looked into online gambling was Rhode Island, which set up an exploratory committee.
Nothing ever came of that precursor to a precursor to a bill, but Rhode Island Lottery Director Gerald S. Aubin made some interesting comments about online gambling that appeared in the Providence Journal this week.
Aubin’s comments are just shy of being against online gambling, but Aubin sees the matter of regulated online poker as a legislative problem, not a moral or economic issue.
Aubin feels online lottery sales would cannibalize the state’s brick and mortar lottery outlets and simply wouldn’t bring in enough revenue to cover the costs to startup and oversee online lottery sales, but Aubin doesn’t seem to have this same concern regarding online poker and other casino games.
For those he cites a different obstacle.
Aubin told the Providence Journal that he thinks online poker would bring in substantial revenue, but implementing it would require a statewide vote and a change to the state’s constitution.
“We wouldn’t pursue it without statewide approval,” he said. “To venture into online poker and online gaming would take constitution [sic] approval.”
