REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-How Online Gambling Hurts Real Estate

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Daily Real Estate News | May 15, 2008 | How Online Gambling Hurts Real Estate
WASHINGTON — A former U.S. representative is working hard to convince REALTORS® that gambling on the Internet is a bad thing. Wondering what's the connection?

As Jim Leach sees it, real estate professionals (and the housing market, in general) lose out when a potential buyer cleans out his savings account at an online gaming site rather than using it for a home down payment.

"You can't save for a home if you gamble," said Leach, past chair of the House Financial Services Committee who's now the head of a policy institute at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

He hopes to convince real estate practitioners to become his allies in a fight against online gambling. If you thought that was already illegal, you’re right: Internet gambling is mostly outlawed, thanks in large part to a bill Leach championed in Congress in 2006.

But supporters of online gambling are gearing up for a big push to overturn that law, called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. And that's what Leach is seeking to prevent.

Leach says the widespread availability of gambling would create a lure that otherwise-conscientious savers would find hard to resist. Leach pointed to one study that found the percentage of college students who gamble online dropped from 8 percent to 1 percent after the 2006 law took effect.

— By Robert Freedman for REALTOR® magazine online