Online gambling opportunities in Vermont?

Another US state official has been persuaded by the Department of Justice’s December policy switch on the Wire Act to investigate the possibilities of more online gambling at state level.

Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont has asked the Vermont Lottery Commission to take a serious look at developing online gaming opportunities, following the example of a growing number of American states intent on exercising their right to decide domestic internet gambling policy.

A favourable report on the opportunities to raise tax revenues from online gambling could generate funds for the Vermont state education fund, the governor says. Currently, all proceeds from the Lottery are put into the fund. Last year this amounted to roughly $20 million.

“Internet lottery is going to be the wave of the future. I’m not suggesting that we won’t sell tickets and I want to sell tickets because it’s good for our downtown stores,” said Shumlin. “But we also have to recognize that the technology is taking us to the Internet and the question is, what’s the role of the Internet in our lottery for Vermont in the future. And we don’t have to hurry but we better figure it out.”

Shumlin’s challenger for the governorship, Republican Randy Brock, says he has serious concerns about any effort to expand state sponsored gambling.

“Gambling is a serious problem for some Vermonters and we don’t want to make it easier for those folks to get into deeper and deeper trouble,” said Brock. “There need to be some limits on what we do particularly if we’re doing anything that would extend credit to gambling and that’s something that I think we should do very, very cautiously if at all.”

The Vermont Lottery Commission is expected to issue a special report on Internet gambling to the Legislature in January 2013.