Why Isn’t There More Gambling on Airplanes?

Think back to the last time you were on a long plane ride: you’d finished the magazines from the Duty Free, watched the same Will and Grace episode three times, and woke your sleeping aisle- seated neighbor to take a jaunt around the plane. In short, you were bored.

Airlines are proposing a solution- one that will both entertain passengers and ensure that they increase their profits. The latter, of course, is no small consideration in today’s troubled airline industry. The answer to their prayers: in-flight gambling! What could answer both passengers’ ever- louder demands to be entertained, and the airline industry’s desperate need for funds, more than a few strategically placed gambling machines at the back of the plane, or a plane- wide lottery!

As with any great idea, there are, of course, some rather thorny obstacles. First and foremost, the United States is diametrically opposed to allowing gambling on any flights that enter its territory. According to the Gorton Amendment, named after anti- gambling crusader Senator Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), “An air carrier or foreign air carrier may not install, transport, or operate, or permit the use of, any gambling device on board an aircraft in foreign air transportation."

Note that this law applies not only to American carriers, but also to foreign airline companies. Since most of the major airline companies in the world fly to America, this law essentially dictates that companies, if they want to do business with the U.S., must not install any kind of gambling apparatus.

Whether the United States has the legal, or moral, right to dictate what other countries may do is a highly debated issue. Most of the countries of the world, to differing degrees, resent what they perceive as the world’s only superpower’s consistent gerrymandering. From a legal perspective, too, many contend that the United States is in the wrong. The attempt to dictate the behavior of foreign businesses, operating in foreign territory, most probably violates international law and free trade agreements.

However, there are certain airlines that do not have to play by the United States’ rules: those that never even come close to entering U.S. territory. Airlines such as Ryanair, a low-cost carrier that flies within Europe, already runs some forms of gambling on its flights. Currently, Ryanair sells lottery tickets to passengers, albeit only to residents of the countries on the airline’s routes.

Ryanair has recently announced plans to expand its gambling operation to include laptop gambling units which will work much like any regular online gambling website. The gambling machines, which will be available by the end of this year, will be called Digebox. Company officials are extremely optimistic about the development. CEO Michael O’Leary told press sources that, "The sky is the limit here. The potential is enormous. I think these things will become as common as the in-flight magazine."

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