The protests in the United States against online casinos are a bit more than biased.  Conservatives have attacked the morality of online gambling, the risk of exposure to kids and problem gamblers, and danger of unethical practices in sports.  None of these reasons really hold water when it is considered that proper regulations to online casinos is not only a solid solution to these problems, but in fact the only solution to these problems.  So what is it about online casinos that the United States does not like?  The answer is competition.

Gambling, in several forms, can be found all over the United States.  48 states have some sort of gambling.  The reason for the widespread expansion of gambling is the unbelievable revenues the industry generates for the government in the form of taxes.  There is perhaps no form of gambling so popular as state lotteries.

42 states in the United States offer state lotteries.  Many of these lotteries are now online.  The problem with online casinos, most of them operated by foreign companies, is that they are taking money away from state government that might have otherwise been used to enter a lottery game.

In 2007 the 42 states with a lottery spent over $520 million promoting them.  There is no coincidence that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, while banning online casinos, made and exemption for state run lotteries online.  The issue is protectionism; it has little to do with morality.  Morality really first entered the picture when Representative Barney Frank decided outlawing online casinos was a violation of personal freedoms.