INDIANA: Senate OKs bill targeting online gambling

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Senate OKs bill targeting online gambling
Internet service providers also could face felony charges
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By Lesley Stedman
lstedman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Senate passed a bill yesterday meant to curb online gambling by targeting the operators of illegal casino Web sites and the Internet service providers that make them available to Hoosiers.

Senate Bill 71 -- passed 49-1 -- would make operating gambling Web sites that are accessible by Indiana residents a felony. The bill now moves to the House for consideration.

''All of this (Internet gambling) is unregulated. We can't tax it. We can't control it,'' said the bill's author, Sen. David Ford, R-Hartford City.

The bill also gives local prosecutors the authority to alert Internet service providers that specific gambling Web sites are illegal in Indiana. The provider would then have 30 days to remove the site or block its Indiana customers from accessing the page.

If the providers failed to block the site, they also could be charged with felonies, Ford said.

The bill requires the state attorney general to maintain a list of all sites that local prosecutors had asked Internet service providers to block. Eventually, Ford hopes that Internet providers would regularly check the list and block the sites, without the threat of prosecution.

Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton, was the only senator who voted against the bill. He said later that it would ''be virtually impossible'' to enforce. But Hume said he also is concerned that the General Assembly is too quick to create new crimes and enhance penalties for existing ones.

''We need to put more thought into these things,'' he said.

Internet gambling already is illegal in Indiana under the federal Interstate Wire Act, which prohibits betting using telephone lines or other wire communications. But state law gives prosecutors few tools to combat it.

There are now more than 1,800 Internet gambling sites -- all based in other countries -- and they are expected to generate more than $6 billion in revenue this year, according to Christiansen Capital Advisors, an accounting firm. About 60 percent of that -- roughly $3.6 billion this year -- comes from the United States.

River City Group, a St. Louis-based industry consulting company, has estimated that the number of Internet gamblers worldwide will increase to 15.4 million by 2004, up from about 9.6 million now.

SB 71 originally allowed prosecutors to charge Hoosiers who gamble online with a Class D felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

But members of the Senate Economic Development and Technology Committee -- concerned that prosecutors would try to monitor what Hoosiers do in their own homes -- removed that provision from the bill.

Illegal gambling -- including wagering with a Web-based casino -- is currently a misdemeanor in Indiana.

House action

A bill that would require uniform roadside memorials for crash victims in Indiana stalled in the House after several lawmakers raised questions or objections. Rep. Duane Cheney, DPortage, withdrew his bill before the full House voted on it. He said he intended to bring it back for consideration later.

It would require the Indiana Department of Transportation to place uniform roadside memorials to commemorate crash victims, serve as a reminder to drive safely and honor public-safety workers killed on highways.

The department would have to remove any memorials, such as crosses or wreaths, that it had not placed.

Cheney said the department had safety concerns about memorials put up by family members.

But some lawmakers said there were flaws in the bill, and Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka, said a new law was not needed. He said roadside memorials were personal and would not have the same meaning to the loved ones of crash victims if they were state signs.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.