Online Gambling Tax - Ohio Moves Forward

February 10, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Try and look for something on the bottom of a pool with murky waters, and you will have experienced how many United States citizens feel regarding the largely undefined and murky laws connected to Internet gambling.

Some clarity regarding the US tax code and Internet gambling came to light on Monday. With the first move towards regulation and legalization for online gambling coming out of a small town in the State of Ohio, gamblers feel that this may be the first of many steps forwards.

The Lisbon Village Council in Ohio updated their tax code to comply better with more modern lifestyles and also with updated technology. The small town of Lisbon, Ohio's, Village Council placed a percentage tax charge on online gambling winnings, which is equal to other income. The percentage of tax charged on Internet gambling winnings in Lisbon, Ohio, as with other income, is now set at 1.5 percent.

It seems that the US federal government continually try to apply outdated laws to online transactions, that were written at a time when there was not yet an Internet casino to think of. Lisbon, Ohio, noticed that there was a legislative gap that needed to be filled in order to grow and change, and address the needs of a changing world. They did this by correctly launching a system which properly taxes Internet betting.

A Lisbon Solicitor, Virginia Babcock acknowledged the need to create new laws when much time has obviously evolved. Babcock said that "The last time our tax code was updated online gambling really wasn't a factor."

State and federal authorities have simply refused to deal with and address this growing issue of Internet gambling. They have not seen the need to adjust the existing laws, or to create new laws in order to treat the issue of gambling as an entirely new concept. Instead, they have relied on a mixture of out of date statutes and bills which have proved to be very problematic, such as the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). The Wire Act, which was written in order to stop bookies from handling any action by telephone, has now been used in a very twisted way by the Department of Justice in order to try and attack the US online gambling world.

Lisbon, by applying this tax law to Internet casino winnings, are clearly showing that online gambling is, in fact, not illegal in the United States. Perhaps this brave step will lead to the regulation the Internet gambling world desperately needs.