Let’s put it this way: short of implementing Communist China-style policies of restricting access at the hardware level, Internet gaming by Americans isn’t going away.

Given this fact, Americans have a choice: ignore it, or embrace it.

Now if we as a society choose to hold on to our neo-Puritanical notions of morality, well that’s fine. This is a republic, after all.

But from a practical standpoint, why not embrace onling gaming? If it’s a rapidly growing, billion-dollar industry, legalization would produce several benefits:

1. The economy

   Las Vegas has been one of the fastest growing US cities for over a decade, due in large part to the growing social acceptance of gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment. Dozens of states have allowed the creation of American Indian casinos; even more have state lotteries.

   Gaming is big business, and it would be foolish for the US to forego its share of this growing industry because of some outdated notion of morality. With hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the stock market and local economies all over the country, the benefits in wealth creation, jobs, and tax revenues are enormous.

2. Retaining US dollars

   Ignoring online gaming not only does not produce any positive benefit for Americans, but actually has a negative effect. The US trade deficit is already staggering, with the consumer preference for imported products, outsourcing of manufacturing to other countries, high rate of federal borrowing, and our huge appetite for and dependence on petroleum.

   With the majority of players residing in the US, online gaming as it exists today results in billions of dollars going to overseas companies.

3. Protecting players

   While online poker sites such as Party Poker have an inherent interest in keeping their games as clean and transparent as possible, smaller operations and online casinos don’t necessarily have this same incentive. If online gaming sites licensed by the United States were subject to regulations backed by the full legal power of the federal government, players could feel more confident about the sites and sleep well knowing their deposits aren’t going toward the payment of other players’ cashouts.

Thanks to Iggy’s post for sparking the thought. Please also feel free to point out any errors in fact or logic in the comments. Or opposing views.