The United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act all the way back in 2006 and will Ireland follow suit in 2009?

It could be a possibility according to the independent.ie.

"Minister for Sport Martin Cullen has threatened to ban internet betting in Ireland if bookmakers here don't cough up more money to the Exchequer for the controversial Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund," a Sunday report from the Independent said.

With the country's current economic environment, it was speculated that the race fund would see a significant reduction but according to reports, the actual amount wouldn't be as bad as anticipated.

Still, Cullen said the day of government handouts for the racing industry would soon become a thing of the past and that books and offshore gambling companies would have to pick up the slack.

"It is not sustainable to continue to support this fund from the Exchequer," Cullen is quoted as telling an Oireachtas committee.

"The big players will need to come to the plate."

"A view will need to be formed about internet and offshore betting. I will use whatever legal levers are available to me to get at that funding in terms of trying to get some tax out of it," Cullen went on to say in the Independent report.

A ballpark estimate from gambling industry insiders has the amount of money wagered through foreign companies in the neighborhood of €1.7 billion.

Cullen said that if a 0.5 percent online gambling tax were imposed it would bring a windfall of about €100 million.

"There are choices to be made, and I am making it clear to the industry that we will make those choices," he said.

"The ultimate choice would be to ban it. That approach has been taken in America and perhaps it will be taken in other countries as well. However, I do not want to go down that road."