Hawaii, Maine and Online Gambling

[rambling_gambler]

Hawaii and Maine have both made the news recently as both are trying to pass legislature concerning online gambling. Hawaii is one of only 2 states in the US that considers ALL forms of gambling illegal, so lawmakers are trying to pass legislature to legalize online gambling. Maine, on the other hand, is trying to pass legislature to allow for online lottery ticket purchases by next year.

Thoughts?

[Cha Ching]

So Hawaii can not gamble at all, but they are trying to make online gambling legal there? Just making sure I read that right. To me, that just sounds stupid. Why would they not want gambling in their state at all, but then want it to be fine to online gamble? I guess it really depends on why Hawaii passed on gambling in the first place. Most states use gambling to fund schools and stuff, and I bet Hawaii gets enough tourism money that they do not need gambling. Some states pass on gambling due to moral/ religious reasons, if that is why Hawaii passed on gambling then they should not pass online gambling. That is just being a hipocrite.

With that all said, I believe people should be able to gamble anywhere, if they want to. I do think the funds raised should partly go to good causes, though. If someone really wants to gamble, making it illegal does not stop them. They just drive over to the next state to do it. That is money the original state could have used!

[texasholdem]

I didn't know that Hawaii considers all forms of gambling to be illegal! Given that, it's probably going to be hard to get a law passed allowing for online gambling. As far as Maine is concerned, if they are already allowing for online gambling, selling lottery tickets through the internet shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

[Adrian]

I didn't know that we had 2 states where all forms of gambling are considered illegal; I just assumed since it's legal in my state, it's legal everywhere, lol, at least in some form. (We have the lottery but no casinos, for example.) Anyways, if Hawaii's bill passes, I think it will pave the way for other forms of gambling in the future, which is good for business all the way around, in my opinion. I don't really have an opinion on Maine legalizing online lottery ticket sales. If you can buy them in the store, the only benefit I see in buying them online is convenience. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not really a landmark law, lol.

[rambling_gambler]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. Personally, where Hawaii is concerned, I think it's weird that they consider all forms of gambling to be illegal, yet they're trying to allow for online gambling. I don't know if it's like Adrian says, and they're trying to pave the way for other forms of gambling later, or if they're just being hypocritical, like Cha Ching mentioned. As for Maine, since they already allow gambling, I can't really see anything negative coming from online lottery ticket sales, so I can't think of any reason that law wouldn't pass.