The United States as well as many European countries where online gambling is illegal is under a lot of pressure at the moment to legalize and tax online gambling. Many big companies in the online gambling business were reluctantly forced to close down in the U.S. after Congress put a stop to Internet betting in 2006.
Despite the fact that online gambling is banned in the U.S. there is presently a lot of gambling taking place for which the government is receiving no revenue whatsoever.
Pro-gambling Congressman Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts is attempting to change the situation by endeavoring to introduce legislation aimed at overturning the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Barney Frank tried to overturn the UIGEF in 2007 but was unsuccessful in doing so. However, he feels that he will have more success this time.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers the U.S. government could raise more than fifty billion dollars from taxes on legalized online gambling over a period of ten years.
However, many groups, like the Christian Coalition of America and the National Football League are opposing the repeal and have promised to fight any attempt to end the ban by way of letter writing and lobbying.