Five years after Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), the Senate of State of Michigan sits down to work on the amends to the document.
Initially, the UIGEA banned sites that offered online gambling from allowing transactions with American financial institutions and as a result, making any online gambling illegal.
Five Michigan state senators, including Mike Kowall, on Friday, gathered to give life to a Lawful Internet Gaming Act – a document that would regulate and make online gambling legal.
Officials claim that the bill is supposed to “protect residents of this state who wager on games of chance and skill through the internet and to capture revenues and create jobs generated from internet gaming.”
However, according to CalvinAyre, sports betting will not be included on the list of legally permitted games offered online, as it would be in conflict with enacted in 1991 the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
The Lawful Internet Gaming Act would state, among others, a 10% tax on gross gaming revenue, tribal casinos and a $5 million licensing fee. Moreover, it is stated in the bill that: “Notwithstanding anything else in this act, a wager may be accepted from an individual who is not physically present in this state if the division determines that the wager is not inconsistent with federal law or the law of the jurisdiction, including any foreign nation, in which the individual is located or that the wagering is conducted under a multijurisdictional agreement to which this state is a party that is not inconsistent with federal law.”
