There have been rumors that Florida may be one of the first states that would regulate Internet gambling. Recently, state Representative Joseph Abruzzo filed the Internet Poker Consumer Protection and Revenue Generation Act of 2010.

The legislation shows a regulated system of Internet gambling in the state of Florida. If the legislation is approved the state would be the first to use the rules of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in order to aid in regulating online gambling. The UIGEA was passed to get rid of online gambling in the United States, but in the last few years online gambling has grown and not shrunk.

There is a clause in the UIGEA that lets states regulate and conduct intra-state online gambling by law. The legislation of Abruzzo takes advantage of the clause. The bill that was recently filed would let operators of Internet hubs to run Internet poker websites. To get a license operators of the hubs would have to be hand picked by Florida and there are strict guidelines in the bill that would have to be adhered to.

First, the hub operator must have a business license in the state of Florida. Second, the operator must be licensed in more than one state. Third, the operator has to be licensed to offer Internet poker in a country outside of the United States.

If these guidelines were met there would then be a $500,000 application fee that must be paid to the Pari-Mutuel Wagering Trust Fund of the Department of Business and Professional Regulations. If the application is approved the operator would have to pay an annual license fee of $1,000.

When the Internet poker website is set up there are stringent rules in the proposal of Abruzzo. The minimum gambling age would be 21 and this safeguards against both underage gambling as well as money laundering. The online hub operators also have to fully insure all of the software that is being used on the site.

Safeguards for the online players have been a main reason that US Representative Barney Frank has proposed legislation to overturn the UIGEA. There are currently millions of Americans that are gambling over the Internet at websites that are not regulated by the American government.

In the state of Florida and person attempting to get a license has to make sure that the player online is protected against fraud. One of the big problems for lawmakers that are looking to legalize online gambling is addiction to gambling and Abruzzo has that taken care of in his recent proposed Bill.

The Internet hubs have to have limits on the amount of deposits and how much money a player is allowed to deposit daily. Also, a limit has to be placed on how much money a player online can lose in a certain amount of time. There will also be a time limit placed on how long a player can gamble.

Another issue that lawmakers are dealing with is the percentage of taxes on the winnings. In the Internet Poker Consumer Protection and Revenue Generation Act of 2010, Abruzzo has set a plan for 20% of the winnings every month that will go to paying taxes.

If the recent legislation will be passed remains to be seen, but it will depend on the ability of the lawmakers to foresee the financial potential and to come to a middle ground on the differences they have on the issue of online gambling.

Abruzzo has laid out a good Bill that covers all the aspects that makes most bills get thrown out, which may make Florida the first state in the United States where online gambling would be regulated and legal.

Many states have been discussing making online gambling, especially online poker, legal in their states. However, they keep running into federal laws that make gambling over the Internet illegal. However, the state of Iowa has come up with an idea that may make it legal to gambling online in the state. Iowa is also looking into making sports gambling legal is the state.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 has really hindered plans of lawmakers in the United States that want to not only legalize, but regulate the Internet gambling industry in their state. They may want to take a close look at the Iowa plan that would go around the federal laws that are currently on the books.

U.S. Representative is one of group of 7 people that is trying to expand gambling in the state of Iowa. He knows, and has stated as such, that gambling is going to stay in Iowa and he is under the belief that the state should be the leader when it comes to the online gambling industry in the United States.

When he recently talked about the proposal that may come out of the 7-member group that will be discussed next week in a House State Government Committee hearing Quirk stated, “Look, either we’re a gambling state, or we’re not, and with seventeen casinos I’d say we’re a gambling state.”

One of the ideas that the group, and other, is how to work their way around the laws of the UIGEA, which makes it an illegal act for financial institutions from taking part in any Internet gambling transactions. It looks as if the group Quirk is working with and other lawmakers may have now come up with a plan that might just work.

Gamblers would be able to go into casinos in the state where they reside to open up an account and then deposit money into. They would then be allowed to bet over the Internet with the money that is in the casino account. This would skirt the law, as obviously casinos are not financial institutions.

The one main catch with this plan is how the person would get paid and how would they be able to withdraw their funds. Under the current plan, which is still being worked on, a player would go back to the casino to deposit more funds into their account or collect what they have won being paid from their accounts.

Making sports betting legal in the state of Iowa may be harder within the government of the state. There are a lot of lawmakers that are very opposed to any type of sports gambling being legal. Mary Mascher, who is the Chair of the Government Committee, has already made the threat to remove any sports wagering language in any gambling bill that is presented to the committee.

A letter from a FBI top official to U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus stated that cheating while playing poker over the Internet can happen in several ways. The Bachus, who is a leader in the anti-gambling political community, is gathering all the evidence he can find in order to try to attempt to slow down the momentum that is coming together for the legalization and regulation of Internet gambling. Bachus recently revealed the letter at the hearing on Internet gaming held by the House Financial Services Committee.

FBI Assistant Director penned the letter back on November 13th of last year in charge of the cyber division Shawn Henry. He has stated that players that play poker online can work together as well as exploit technology in order to artificially affect the results when playing over the Internet.

Henry wrote in his letter, “There are several ways to cheat at online poker, none of which are legal. The online poker vendors could detect this activity and put in place safeguards to discourage cheating, although it is unclear what the incentive would be for the vendor.”

Regulation of Internet gambling may require a gambling websites, which are licensed, to use some type of cyber-technology that would guard against fraud. This is expected to be done by gambling websites, if online gambling were to become legal, so that money laundering would be thwarted and persons that are underage would not be able to gamble.

Cheating while playing Internet poker on two of the leading poker websites, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, was brought to light by players that observed some irregularities. These players documented the unlikely play and the results and eventually showed that there was corrupted software was used by the gambling websites.

Obviously, it is the case that operators that have websites that are protected well against cheating, as well as money laundering and underage gambling, would be able to draw more business to their sites as opposed to sites that could not have verification that their games are honest ones.

Lawmakers in many states in America have been in discussions on whether or not to legalize Internet poker in their states. California is one of the big states that is mulling over the idea and recently New Jersey Senator Raymond Lesniak introduced a bill in the Garden State that would not only make Internet poker legal in the state, but other casino gambling games as well.

One of the main reasons that Lesniak is pushing the bill ahead of the federal government in making online poker legal is that he wants to make sure that gaming operators in the state of New Jersey have the first shot to get gaming customers in the state. One thing that is in Lesniak’s bill is that the online companies that offer gambling online has to be located in Atlantic City, which is the land-based casino capital on the East Coast.

The Internet casino industry would operate much like the land based casino industry in Atlantic City. Both the age requirements as well as the game rules would be copied after the Atlantic Casino industry. The proposed bill to legalize online gambling in New Jersey has been welcomed news by those that are looking to overturn the ban in the United States.

In a recent press release Joe Brennan, who is the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association Chairman, stated, “We’re happy that New Jersey has taken this issue into their own hands. New Jersey is recognized as having the toughest gaming regulators in the US, but as a leading gaming state with a long track record of doing things the right way, Internet gambling will have a great home here and the opportunity to begin normalizing the industry.”

As stated before New Jersey is not alone, as there are other states that are looking into legalizing gambling in their jurisdictions. Lawmakers in California have been in serious discussions and if the laws proposed are approved Internet poker, but not other gambling games, would be legalized and regulated in the state.

On the federal level U.S. Representative Barney Frank, who has been the main lawmaker to push the legalization and regulation of online poker, has introduced legislation to Congress that would overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). Frank’s proposed bill is gaining momentum with other lawmakers, as 64 of them have already signed onto the bill.

In Lesniak’s proposed bill in New Jersey Internet poker would be legal, but other games that would be legal would be slots, craps, blackjack, and roulette as well as other gambling games that can be played at land-based casinos.

California is known as being one of the more liberal states in America. This is why it is not surprising at all that lawmakers from the state of California will begin discussions about being the first state to legalize Internet gambling in the United States.

The Governmental Organization Committee, which is mainly responsible for laws dealing with gambling in California, will start talks in February about the legalization and regulation of online gambling. Chairman of the committee Roderick Wright has recently confirmed that these discussions will take place and the main topic will be about Internet poker.

California does not have a lot of wiggling room to bring more than the game of poker to Internet gamblers. The state has quite a few compacts with Indian tribes that involve gambling in land-based casinos and any foray into the Internet gaming market would have to be approved by the tribes before it is regulated and legalized.

One tribe that is in favor of the legalization and regulation of online gambling is the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. This tribe is a leading casino provider in the state of California and their view of the issue will carry a lot of weight with other state tribes.

If it is the case that California changes their laws to include Internet poker regulations it is probable that the Indian tribes would first want the chance to go online. It is a distinct possibility, in terms of gambling revenue, that it will be beneficial to both the state and the Indian tribes in the state.

The Internet gambling issue is one of the more popular and debated issues in the country these days. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA) has been at the center of many of those discussions and debates.

US Representative Barney Frank has proposed legislation that would overturn the UIGEA as well as set up a special foundation that would regulate the Internet gambling industry in the United States. Frank, and many others who support the legalization of the online gambling industry, recently scored a victory for their cause by having the rules for the UIGEA, which were to go in effect on December 1, 2009, delayed until next June.

The talks in California dealing, mainly, with online poker will be watched closely by other states and by lawmakers at the national level. If online poker is legalized and regulated in the state it becomes more likely that it will happen at the national level as well.