And the fight goes on: to regulate or not to regulate. As the battles and opinions continue on the issue, it seems that both sides are taking measures to gather support for their causes- in the form of data.

Representative Jim McDermott, Congressman for Washington State, has brought to light a new study, one that (of course) supports his claim that regulating the online gambling industry would be in America’s favor. Developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, it estimates that by legalizes and controlling internet casinos would result in $8.7 to $42.8 billion in federal revenues over the first decade alone.

“These are revenues that are desperately needed, given that we are at war and face difficulty financing the nation's priorities.” McDermott said. “Before us is a tremendous opportunity to protect consumers and recoup billions of dollars that should be collected by the Internal Revenue Service.”

McDermott has been at the forefront for internet gambling regulation, introducing the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2607), measures for taxing the industry appropriately should the ban be lifted.

“To be clear, these are not mostly new taxes -- the bulk of the revenues generated would come from taxes required under existing law,”" said McDermott. “This is simply a framework to collect taxes on existing activity that is currently unregulated, unsupervised, and underground.”
One of the major points on the endorsement side is the fact that millions of Americans continue to gamble online in spite of the UIGEA (Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). Though the act is enforced through cooperation of credit card companies and banks, its has been under fire from groups such as the Credit Union National Association, Financial Services Roundtable, American Bankers Association, and others. Most have taken issue that if the government has chosen render online gambling illegal, it is then their responsibility to enforce such laws appropriately without leaning on, depending on, passing the torch and liability to financial sectors.

“Instead of this ineffective attempt to prevent adults from gambling over the Internet, we need a more sensible approach to protect consumers and ensure that revenues that now flow offshore stay here in the U.S. and are therefore subject to taxation,” added McDermott. “A new, safer, more sensible approach is needed to regulate Internet gambling and protect consumers.”

McDermott’s proposal will be attached to those legislative pieces of Representative Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, initiating a layout of procedural enforcement for regulating legalizes internet gambling in the United States.