There is a race brewing in the United States and it does not concern horses or humans.  The race is to be the first state to legalize online gambling.  While both states involved are making ardent strides to win the contest, there is, to some degree, resistance in each of them to the legalization of online gambling. 

The race may ultimately become of a contest of who gives up first.  It seems that for every forward step taken, the states take two steps backward.  In California, the online gambling legislation bill was recently rejected after Senator Roderick Wright stopped the Senate Governmental Organization Committee’s vote. 

While everyone agrees that online gambling will furnish the State of California with revenues that it is now certainly lacking, there is staunch opposition coming from the Morongo Band of Indian Missions.  Their chief complaint is that the bill would allow California residents to gamble on off-shore sites.  This would stifle local-based online gambling operations, and put an end to the Morongo monopoly on the California market. 

Senator Wright is reworking the online poker tax clause within the legislation because of Indian tribal opposition to the bill, which does not give them the right or authority to offer online gambling. 

On the other hand, the New Jersey legislation continues to receive powerful opposition from the Atlantic City casino contingent.  The Casino Association of New Jersey, spearheaded by Harrah’s Entertainment, is adamantly opposed to online gambling in New Jersey because it feels that expanded gambling would hurt the volume of casino revenues.  They are arguing that New Jersey should not rule on online gambling until Federal restrictions (Unlawful Internet Government Enforcement Act) are lifted.   

There are now two proposals in the New Jersey Assembly – one calls for a voter referendum which would allow sports betting and online gambling once Federal regulations concerning sports wagering change, while the other would allow in-state online gambling for New Jersey residents only.

There is much at stake for the first state to pass legislation regarding online gambling, and it is generally believed that the first state to do so will become the centre for web sites within the United States.