Utah’s aversion to gambling is often under estimated and also understated when described.  Some times it takes a single case to bring it into focus.  Online casinos do not have much of a chance of being legalized or regulated by the state of Utah.  Utah and Hawaii are the only two states in the nation that do not offer some type of legal gambling.  But, Hawaii has nothing on the measures that Utah will take to make sure gambling business is not conducted.

A local man has found out how strict the state is on gambling the hard way.  Frank Musil, 51, owns the Salt Lake City internet café Fast Action Internet Café.  An undercover investigation last year led law enforcement to discover several bingo based gambling games on the computers in the café.  In addition, they also found both bought and cashed credit cards for use of the machines.

These sorts of imitation online casinos have been found all over the country.  They are often called Internet sweepstakes.  In many of those cases no arrests have yet been made because Internet sweepstakes tend to live in the comfortable grey area of gambling laws.  However there is no such grey area in Utah.  Musil is facing a sentence of 15 years; a very harsh sentence.  In the state of Utah, Musil would have served less time in prison for man slaughter than his gambling scheme. 

Utah chooses to be very strict with its no gambling policy to reduce the temptation of citizens to participate in wagering games.