What a difference $15 billion makes.

Las Vegas casino giants want Congress to study bringing them into the action after watching online casinos' fortunes soar five-fold in a few years. Casino executives are licking their profits for good reason.

Gambling industry research shows that online gamblers that are illegal in the U.S. are young, knowledgeable, college-educated men who can make money.

But while the industry wants to create a dot-com casino, conservative members of Congress were pushing to tighten internet betting bans last week, bolstering polls showing growing concerns about gambling.

The Pew Research Center released the results of a poll last week, which found that 70% of Americans believe legalized gambling encourages people to gamble beyond their means, up from 62% in 1989.

The online gaming industry has emerged in this decade, surging from a $3 billion industry in 2001 to a $15 billion jackpot last year.

It is estimated that 60% of the revenue came from U.S. citizens, many of whom reported in a survey commissioned by the American Game Association that they did not realize they were breaking the law.

Online gambling revenue is expected to jump to $24 billion by the end of the decade.

AGA, the casino industry's lobby, has long been neutral on internet gambling. Some members doubted the industry, others were experimenting with online gambling, but most did not have one opinion or another.

Nevada lawmakers introduced a bill last week calling for the study.

But last week, a House committee passed two bills aimed at further cracking down on internet gambling, and the full House is due to address the issue this summer, just in time to put urgent issues into November's election.

The bills will modernize the 40-year-old Internet gambling ban, the Wire Act. Any update to the Internet and other technologies will ban the use of the Internet and other technologies, as well as the use of many credit and debit cards to place bets.

Conservative groups hope Congress will pass the bill, giving Republican candidates the moral issues to offer voters in the fall.  릴게임

"There are a lot of lawmakers who are concerned about the fact that you have illegal, unregulated, tax-free, and foreign sites that siphon billions of dollars out of the country. The bill makes it "clear that this bill is illegal," said Representative Bob Goodlatte after the bill banning internet gambling was rejected by the House Judiciary Committee.