Facebook agrees to block gambling sites from targeting Dutch users

Kansspelautoriteit board member Paul Tang said the agreement is “an important step in combating illegal operators and preventing people, especially young people who have easy access to Facebook, in to being duped into participating in illegal gambling.  By taking this step, the organisation is showing it takes its social responsibilities seriously.”

A major gambling expansion bill is undergoing changes in the House, but the sponsor said the essential framework of the expansion proposal will remain intact. Representative Robert Rita declined to discuss details of what changes could appear in the bill. “It feels like we’re making progress,” Rita said. “There are many different issues, a lot of moving parts to it. We’re trying to work through them.”

However, Rita said the “foundation of the bill” will remain the same. “Once you start changing the foundation of it, it changes the whole bill,” Rita said. The expansion bill calls for five new casinos, including in Chicago, Rockford, Danville, Lake County and the south Chicago suburbs. It also allows existing casinos to expand and lets horse racing tracks install slot machines.

Horse racing interests have said the ability to have slot machines at horse racing tracks is essential for the long-term survival of the sport. The gambling expansion bill also allocates money for various agricultural programs and to make repairs to the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

The bill previously passed the Illinois Senate. If the House makes changes to the bill, the Senate would have to vote on it again. Twice before, the General Assembly has approved gambling expansion only to have Governor Pat Quinn veto the legislation. Quinn was concerned ethics standards weren’t tough enough in the bill, but gambling negotiators believe they have addressed Quinn’s concerns this time.

Also Sunday, the House approved a bill to return advance deposit wagering to the state. Illinois had a law on the books that provided for advance deposit wagering, but it expired before lawmakers renewed it. Under advance deposit wagering, bettors can wager on horse races online using money from special accounts they have established.

The bill also authorizes the payment of us$ 23 million to the horse racing industry from a gambling fund that has long sat dormant. The fund gets money from casino taxes and is supposed to help offset the impact to the horse racing industry from expanded casino gambling. However, the comptroller’s office said it was never given authority to pay money out of the fund, which has about us$ 109 million in it for the horse racing industry.

Representative David Harris said the fund also has us$ 14 million in it that was supposed to go to Chicago State University. The bill calls for us$ 1.5 million to go to the school. Harris said both the horse racing industry and the university are being shortchanged by the bill.