It's the money, stupid

There's nothing complicated about the motivation behind legislators' push to legalize online poker in this state: It's the money, stupid.

The state stands to rake in new tax revenues of up to $13 million a year if online gambling becomes a reality here.

But even if lawmakers do have dollar signs where their eyes should be, it seems so gauche to come right out and say it. I guess that's why both sides of the aisle are trying to pitch their support of an online poker bill as an attempt to bring law and order to gambling's new Wild West.

“We have it out there. It needs to be controlled,” Sen. Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids, told The Gazette's Rod Boshart this week. Others told him Iowa needs to “get out in front” of the industry, which has been operating for more than a decade.

Yet Senate Study Bill 3164 doesn't contain a single provision that would staunch the flow of money to illegal offshore gambling sites - it couldn't if it tried.

All lawmakers are proposing is that Iowa, albeit responsibly and orderly, reach its hand into the revenue stream. And the only development legislators might “get out in front of” is possible federal legislation that would legalize Internet poker across the country.

If Iowa passed Senate Study Bill 3164 - which allows intrastate, interstate and international arrangements - our casinos would be ready to flip a switch and make sites available to anyone, anywhere, the moment federal lawmakers gave the green light.

Iowa's not the only state to think of this. For years, casinos in Nevada have hosted (and advertised) free-play websites to build brand loyalty in advance of possible legalization. Last year, and with one eye on the national stage, the already gambling-saturated state passed a law making online gambling legal.

More than a dozen companies already have applied for online operating licenses, according to industry news sources.

Call me a cynic, but I don't think it's because they want to protect poor innocent Nevadan gamblers from evil offshore online gambling parlors.

Still, Iowa legislators insist the money is an afterthought, even as they dream of ways to spend it. The only problem is that it's not free money, exactly.

Critics are right to worry about the potential negative social effects of expanded online gambling.

And 69 percent of Iowans oppose legalizing online poker, according to Iowa Poll results released by the Des Moines Register this week. Only 28 percent supported the idea.

Still, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal told Boshart he gives the bill even odds at passing.

Sounds to me like the game is rigged.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net