Gambling online may be hard to regulate, but it will be even harder to outlaw.
This may come as a surprise to many residents in the Garden State, but making that Internet sports bet or playing a chip in a virtual casino is illegal in New Jersey.
According to Kerry Hand of the state’s gaming enforcement division, gambling online is prohibited in our state’s Constitution unless voters specifically approve it.
The last time they did that was in 1976, allowing casinos in Atlantic City.
Hand wants people to know that, as far as the state is concerned, the gambling takes place where the gambler is and not where the gambling business is located.
Many people may feel that it is OK to play in a virtual casino halfway across the world and that it is legal because gambling is legal in that country.
They are wrong.
The hard part here is making, in some cases, the rest of the world agree to our views.
The 1,800 Internet companies that are operating outside of the U.S. cannot be shut down by any of us alone.
Gambling online is legal in some 50 countries and jurisdictions around the world, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.
The complicated maze of laws currently surrounding the issue will make it virtually impossible to outlaw.
Just as hard is stopping people here from betting on those Web sites.
Regulations, not prohibitions, are needed to make sure that those operating such sites stay within the law and transact their businesses honestly.
That is the best way to protect each of us.
That is the way to tame this wild new frontier in gambling before it ends up taming us.