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The Californian Assemblyman Lloyd Levine has taken on the quest against the UIGEA legislation. He has successfully managed to bring a bill to investigate a possible legalization of online gambling through a committee and, thus, one step closer to a vote in the legislature. The aim of Levine’s bill is to determine whether UIGEA binds states, or whether states individually can pass their own laws on the online gambling industry. Lloyd Levine has read between the lines of the UIGEA legislation, and has reached the conclusion that there might be an opening in the legal text allowing for individual states to legalize on online gambling as long as both the operator and the player are located within the same state. Levin’s bill, the Gambling Control/California Intrastate Online Poker Act, was passed unanimously last Wednesday by the Committee on Governmental Organizations. This was the first step on a long journey through the legislation apparatus, and nest it will have to stand its test at the state Appropriations Committee.

Levin’s bill is yet another contribution in the growing protest against the UIGEA legislation, which has paralyzed the American online gambling industry since 2006. Many other initiatives have seen the light, but nothing concrete has yet happened. It seems stronger forces are working against the liberators on the field. By having the bill passed, Lloyd Levine hopes to achieve a clarification of whether the murky and confusing language of the UIGEA law in fact allows for intrastate gambling or not. If so, California will be likely to allow for authorization and taxing of legal online casinos. And many more states are expected to follow suit. If not imposing full fledged online casino legalization, at least they are expected to legalize poker play.

The controversy reaches back to the Constitutional Law. When the Constitution was added the Bill of Rights, it sparked a discussion whether this was in deed a necessary amendment. Patrick Henry famously refused to sign the Constitution after this amendment, claiming that a list of what the federal government could not do was unnecessary. He claimed that anything not expressly granted in the Constitution was automatically forbidden to the national government, and by adding the specific list of rights, it became debatable whether rights not expressly listed may be legally infringed. This is the loophole Levine hopes to explore in order to bring about a legalization of online gambling. If he can prove that the ban against online gambling is not part of the rights bill and therefore does not apply to the individual states to follow, he might stand a chance to revoke the ban. However controversial and complicated this bill might be, it certainly will rock some boats before it will be settled.

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The shift in Cuban leadership has led to a lot of speculation whether Cuba in fact could be the next online casino paradise. The region is the home place for many online casino businesses, and experts are now discussing whether Cuba will be the next country in the region to ease the ban on online casinos. The Caribbean is already well known for its lenient policy toward the online casino industry, and is considered the capital of online casinos. Antigua, Jamaica, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic already allow online casinos and sportsbooks to operate from their countries. Only few other places in Europe and Canada, like Gibraltar, Malta and the Kahnawake Reserve, allow the online gambling industry to operate from their area. The industry processes billions of dollars a year, and many of these countries base a large percentage of their economic output on this particular industry.

Since the shift in Cuban leadership earlier this year, where Fidel Casto’s son Raul Castro took over the leadership from his increasingly ill father, not many Cubans expected much of a change. They were, however, to their big surprise proven wrong. Raul Castro has introduces several changes and eased many of the former restriction, which made the lives of the Cubans unnecessarily hard. The Cubans can now, for instance, acquire cell phones, DVD players, microwave ovens, and other helpful retain goods. Furthermore, a privatization of land to private farmers has begun. Now, poor farmers throughout the country receive their own lot of land to grow whatever produce they decide to help stabilize the dairy, tobacco and coffee industries. The wind of change flying over Cuba, has led some to speculate whether Cuba eventually will ease its ban on online casinos, and try to gain its share in the growing industry by allowing the industry to operate from its land.

Before the revolution Cuba was considered a lavish and exotic place for Americans to visit. The atmosphere was free and “bohemic”, and it was possible to find an abundance of casino resorts, attracting gamblers from al over. The revolution in the 1950s ended the era and many restrictions were imposed on the small country, which had all its assets turned state owned. The new government tore down many of the casinos and a ban on gambling was imposed. Now the online casino industry is hoping that Cuba will return to former times, and ease the ban on gambling as well as online gambling. There is no doubt that huge amount of money this industry could contribute to the empty state finances, would help the poor country a great deal. The only question remains, if Castro is ready to let this highly capitalist industry enter his domain.

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Casino squabbles and government involvement is becoming a trend on the eastern seaboard as yet another state has to call in the big guns to help them. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is meeting to help the owners of the SugarHouse Casino, the city it is being built in, and the state legislature come lay claim to or give up the land the casino is supposed to be built on. The section of land that they happen to be fighting over just happens to extend halfway across the Delaware River where it meets the New Jersey shore line.

Anyone who wants to lease land along the river that includes partially building their establishment over the water has had to seek permission from the state legislature before starting construction work. However, the owners of SugarHouse were issued a lease by then Mayor John Street. Street invoked a little used ruling from a 1907 law that supposedly authorized him to act on behalf of the state as their agent. Unfortunately some state legislators sued both the city of Fishtown and SugarHouse in the Supreme court over this matter, stating that the Mayor had not right to give away the ‘riparian rights’ and are now seeking concessions from the future casino which may include kicking them off the proposed building site.

To make matters even worse for SugarHouse, Mayor Nutter who came into office January of 2008 has revoked the license granted to SugarHouse, and the lawyers in the city state that neither Mayor Street nor the city ever had the legal right to issue the license. SugarHouse is now without city support and they fighting for the vested interest they have in the property and area, stating that the neither entity has the right to revoke their license. Some construction work has already been started and SugarHouse has invested money in surveys and other preliminary construction issues.

The Supreme Court in the state has decided to hear the appeals of SugarHouse and another proposed casino Foxwoods, who doesn’t have the need to build over water. Since the licenses had been awarded in 2006, the court has already kicked out a referendum from the city asking to have the casinos moved further away from residential neighborhoods, and stating the Gaming Control Board decides where the casinos go. They are also going to be looking into why it took the city so long to get the zoning process finished and ordered that the city grant Sugarhouse and Foxwood all the building permits and other licenses they need so that they can start building.

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