Free Wireless, but Not Free Choice, in Utah

June 18, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Utah may be situated right next to Nevada, but when it comes to gambling, the two states could not be further apart. While Nevada has legalized gambling, Gambling is illegal in Utah, a state that does not even run a lottery!

Utah residents have been given a free service by the Utah Transit Authority, which has set up free wireless Internet systems in some Utah cities, helping residents to break the tedium of prolonged travel times to and from work. Although Utah residents can enjoy this free service, the Utah Transit Authority has now decided to police which websites may be accessed through the free Wi-Fi system.

Online gambling is not the first to go in this free service. The Transit Authority has already employed the use of a filter that blocks out pornographic and related websites that are not in line with their policy, although they have not managed to filter out all related websites at this time. Online gambling sites are intended to be the next to go.

Gerry Carpenter, a spokesperson for the Utah Transit Authority said "The filter is dynamic and constantly updated by the software provider to provide the most up-to-date protection possible."

The filtering system, however, is not as effective as the Utah Transit Authority would like it to be, so they have decided to introduce fines for those who enter websites they would like to block. They are hoping that the fines will act as another preventative measure helping to block all "inappropriate" sites that not been filtered out by the system.

Carpenter has noted that even commuters who use their own Internet, or those viewing material that was downloaded elsewhere, can run the risk of being charged a fine of $100 for disorderly conduct. Carpenter also stated that the reason the policy was instated is that both children and adults use the state trains and buses, and they wish to protect the children from seeing the content that offends.

Transit police who observe those breaking the law, and accessing the type of sites that are banned, will be required to hand out citations to those caught violating the law. Should the ordinance pass, first offenders will be required to pay a fine of $300, with second time and subsequent offenders receiving fines of $500. Online gamblers wishing to risk the possibility of the fine in order to play their favorite games, would need a good gambling session, with good winnings, in order to cover these relatively significant fines.

Interestingly, although there are a number of concerns connected to legalizing any form of gambling in the state of Utah, the state has come out in support of Barney Frank's bill to regulate online gambling in order to protect people from the problems connected with unregulated and unscrupulous gambling sites which are available on the Internet.