<H1>Iowa lawmakers considering online gambling</H1>
Blog post by Jason Clayworth • jclayworth@dmreg.com • February 26, 2010

Iowa would be the first state in the nation to allow in-state Internet gambling under a proposal being developed by a group of eight lawmakers, several elected leaders said today.
The idea would allow people to deposit between $50 and $500 into a special account at one of Iowa’s casinos. That account could then be used to play poker online. The restrictions, however, is that the person would have to play on a computer that is using an Iowa Internet address.

Playing outside of the state would be prohibited.

Additional revenue to the state would be roughly $11.5 million, according to preliminary projections.

Advocates of the idea call it “account deposit wagering” and refrain from saying it is Internet gambling, noting that people would first have to physically go to a casino to add money to their account.

“Approx 50,000 people in the state of Iowa participate in illegal, online gaming. The discussion we are having about account deposit wagers would put caps on it, regulate it through the racing and gaming commission,” said Rep. Doug Struyk, R-Council Bluffs who is part of a legislative working group on the issue. “…We would take something that Iowans are currently being abuse on by out-of-country, unregulated entities and allow the state to put constraints on it.

Struyk made the comments today during a forum on gambling at Drake University sponsored by IowaPolitics.com.

Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, expressed reservations about the idea.

“There are a lot of things in Iowa that are illegal but it doesn’t mean we should legalize it,” Mascher said.

A bill is being drafted, Struyk said.

I took one of my "official" visits to Iowa State for baseball and the place is terrible. Not good enough for me to go legit and play online legally imo.

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Originally Posted by flipbsj

said Rep. Doug Struyk, R-Council Bluffs who is part of a legislative working group on the issue. “…We would take something that Iowans are currently being abuse on by out-of-country, unregulated entities and allow the state to put constraints on it.

who is abusing the Iowans? pokerstars and ftp? i love these idiot politicians complaining about out of country entities when they won't let US companies like Harrahs set up a regulated site in the US. i almost don't care anymore if it gets expressly legalized or not. it will always be available to US players whether the government likes it or not.

I thought Cali said they were gunna do this as well a few weeks ago

so can we play party poker or not

 

Originally Posted by JustKLLinItQ

I took one of my "official" visits to Iowa State for baseball and the place is terrible. Not good enough for me to go legit and play online legally imo.

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Do you live in Washington? Thats the only state it isn't "legit", right???

 

Originally Posted by AntiClimacus

Do you live in Washington? Thats the only state it isn't "legit", right???

Yeah what can I say, I'm a criminal.

 

Originally Posted by flipbsj

Jeremy Hellickson made the 40 man roster on the Tampa Bay Rays major league team this year and he's from Iowa. Stud.

sure. hellickson is from des moines and didn't go to iowa state tho. ames sucks and iowa state is weak. that was the point of my initial post... oh and to rag on some dude

UI/ Iowa CIty ftw

At least some states are trying to give players an option and some freedom.

LOL'ing at two state representatives that don't know what's legal or illegal in their state. When someone gets arrested for playing online poker in Iowa, or if there is an explicit law on their books, then I'll take their word for it. Until then, they've been drinking too much Everclear.

Any consideration by lawmakers of gracing online poker is a good thing, overall. But this sounds like:

- Iowans can put money in an account

- Some Iowa entity opens a new online poker site

- Only Iowans are allowed to play there

Big whoop. The funny thing is they're more than happy to take my money if I want to drive 2 hours south on I-35 and hit the casinos by Mason City. I'm not an Iowa resident - they'll host my live action, but not my online action. Makes my head hurt.

 

Originally Posted by grapsfan

LOL'ing at two state representatives that don't know what's legal or illegal in their state. When someone gets arrested for playing online poker in Iowa, or if there is an explicit law on their books, then I'll take their word for it. Until then, they've been drinking too much Everclear.

lol...icwudt

 

Originally Posted by tobyfunk

<span>on April 2nd, 2001, ISU Athletic Director Bruce Van de Velde announced that the Iowa State baseball program would be eliminated due to "budget cuts".</span>

<span><span>sick brag on getting recruited to play baseball at a school that doesn't even have a baseball program

</span></span>

sick brag about being so stupid that you didn't look at his profile to notice he was 28, therefore would have taken his official 10 years ago when he was 18, which would have been 1999-2000. Nice job on calling someone out and looking like a complete buffoon.

Oh yeah, Iowa still sucks. F Norhaus!