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The U.S. Court of Appeals made a ruling today upholding the 2006 UIGEA. The suit was brought by Interactive Media challenging that the UIGEA was unconstitutional.

A panel with 3 judges ruled that since the UIGEA did not actually make online gambling illegal they would not overturn the decision. The UIGEA tries to curb the funding of online gambling which falls upon the banks to enforce but doesn’t actually make it illegal to play at online casinos.

There is currently a debate  happening in Washinton with many lawmakers looking to legalize and regulate online gambling. Senators like Barney Frank are trying to look for new ways to generate money in a slowing economy and Online Gambling would help generate billions for the US economy.

The decision did however open up a new argument with the judges ruling that it depends on how the state handles a “bet”. Meaning that states may be able to regulate and tax online gambling and it would be on a state by state basis similar to how brick and morter casinos are run on the state level.

Online gambling advocates are not particularlly happy with today’s decision but have mentioned they will persue legalizing online gambling at a state level.  Two states that have been actively looking into legalislation for online gambling have been California and Nevada.

Here are some articles from around the web on the court decision

Wall Street Journal -Reports about the possibility of state legalization.

Wired – Has a link to a pdf with the court decision.

There are many people that win the Lottery and go from rags to riches but years later they find themselves with tons of debt and end up squandering their winnings and are unhappier then ever. Many people can’t handle the sudden rush of money with a sudden paranoia of family and friends as well as many outrageous purchases that they can’t afford in the long run.

This isn’t always the case and for Brad Duke he has eluded the pitfalls and has set up a company with his $85 million won ($220 million before tax) Powerball win in 2005. His goal is to turn his $85 million into $1 billion in 10 years. This is a lofty goal but reading his story on CNN Money made me believe he is on the right track.

Instead of purchasing a mansion and exotic cars (I can’t say that wouldn’t be tempting…Ok, I would probably do that) he instead put $45 million dollars into safe low risk investments. He then invested $35 million into aggressive investments (oil/gas/real estate). He set up a family foundation with about a million of his funds and took 17 friends to Tahiti for around $60k. He paid off his mortgage on his home and paid off his student debt.

He did end up buying some stuff for himself but likely not what you would expect a new found millionaire to buy. He purchases a used VW 2002 Jetta and purchases new bicycles (top of the line) totaling about $80k. He also gives each family member a $12k annual gift which is the largest sum of money you can give tax-free (awesome).

So how is he doing…well the article was originally written in 2007 but at the time of the CNN.com interview he had an un-official net worth of $128 million. I doubt the recent economy helped with his lofty goal but I am sure with the proper planning he is still a very wealthy individual.

What would you do if you won a progressive jackpot at an online casino? Would you do something similar to Brad Duke or would you just go for the big house and cars. I would definitely consider the safer route of growing your money but I would probably splurge a bit more then Brad did.