Forum Moderators: phranque
Leisure & Gaming and payment processor FireOne joined the list of companies fleeing a U.S. ban on online gaming on Tuesday, as signs emerged that Europe is to open up its gambling market.Leisure & Gaming said it would stop serving U.S. gamblers if President George W. Bush signed into law a ban that was unexpectedly passed by Congress at the start of this month.
Leisure & Gaming is in talks to sell its operations in the United States, it added.
More gaming firms prepare to flee U.S. ahead of ban [today.reuters.co.uk]
The casino's are losing money due to online gambling and the government profiting from a percentage of that revenue is cleaning house online.
<snip>
[edited by: trillianjedi at 11:08 am (utc) on Oct. 11, 2006]
[edit reason] I appreciate it's tricky in a thread like this, but let's steer away from politics. [/edit]
The addiction arguement could be essentially applied to everything:
A person is addicted to shopping, outlaw shopping
A person is addicted to alcohol, outlaw drinking
ad infinitum until we have a totalitarian state.
IMHO, what really should be outlawed is: Cable company monopolies, tariffs, social security, and scores of other useless government entities and people who depend on the government for their income <snip>
[edited by: trillianjedi at 11:07 am (utc) on Oct. 11, 2006]
[edit reason] See above [/edit]
Exactly, it's time people took responsibility into their own hands so us with half-a-brain can market services and wares to them. Ah...you have to love the weak-minded.
[edited by: trillianjedi at 11:07 am (utc) on Oct. 11, 2006]
I just find it interesting that they aren't banning betting on horse races or lotteries, it's the online casinos. Instead of regulating it, they just ban it. Either you ban everything or nothing. Horse races can easily be fixed whether it be through drugging a horse or the Breeder's Cup PickSix scam from a few years ago. Either ban it all or regulate it all.
<snip>
What I find interesting is that the us goverment wants to put the onus of enforcement onto the banks. The banks are saying they won't do the enforcing because of the huge cost.
Small details like:
Where is the master list to lookup companies that CC can't transfer funds to?
Who maintains this list?
How do they deal with rolling company names?
None of these items have been discussed and the banks say the answer is not them. It is an administrative nightmare to figure out and maintain such a list.
Also for the US Internet money transfer companies this is going to be bad as they are bound to this law where other transfer companies who reside elsewhere are not. I forsee many americans putting money in some out of country transfer company and then having that company transfer the funds to their gambling account will still be just as easy but will cut out American businesses from the action. Will they then make it illegal to use their CC to put money in any transfer company that doesn't comply with their law. And who keeps that list.... and so on.
Internet gambling has always been illegal in the USA just not enforceable, well now they have some bill they ca point to and say "See we are doing something to stop it" when really there isn't much they can do.
I read a canned letter from a large poker site, one of the first and largest, and they are saying they will have ways for Americans to play real money games and not to worry.
[edited by: trillianjedi at 11:09 am (utc) on Oct. 11, 2006]
cheers
viggen
Italian State Blocks Gambling Sites
[webmasterworld.com...]
I think these companies are exiting because they expect to apply for some type of US license in the not too distant future.
If they have no US presence, they aren't subject to US law. Besides, this new law doesn't make any type of gambling illegal that wasn't illegal before. So, why else be bothered by it on the other side of the world?
[edited by: trillianjedi at 11:15 am (utc) on Oct. 11, 2006]
Thanks ;)
Previously, it was all megabucks, offshore companies and big flotations.
Now it's more 'real world'. Smell the fear.
The unseen subtext is that, contrary to what many people think (including radical Islamists) America is a very conservative country.
It doesn't like crooked businessmen of any stripe (Enron et al), and it certainly doesn't like gambling.
If you are a US citizen, I would still check with a lawyer, god knows what they put in the bill...for all we know they probably made it illegal to handle that money, or even be an exec or employee of such business (regardless of location).
Hmmmm
I think people are bothered by it because someone was arrested.
Sure, but those people were on US soil and also involved with online sports gambling. The US justice department says that online casinos are covered by the Wire Act, but courts have held that the language in the Wire Act only applies to sports gambling. If it applied to online casino games, there wouldn't have been people trying unsuccessfully to pass another law for the last six years.
I agree with you that such arrests might make a few executives shaky, but the arrests came under different circumstances and different laws. I don't think anyone has ever tried an extradition for a Wire Act violation, but I could be wrong.
try telling that to the two heads of British online gaming firms who have been hauled off planes by the feds in recent weeks. If you go anywhere near the US then you have to be aware of the laws there. That includes the possibility that your flight from London to Mexico may have to divert to the US due to a technical problem.
It seems that the poker site I frequent has decided to quit allowing US citizens to fund their accounts. Okay.... so I try to sit down and play with the measly $17 I have in my account - no go! As a Nevada resident, I can't even sit down at the tables!
I'm so furious over this I can barely see straight! Not mad at the poker site, of course (they don't like the situation either), but the US politicians who have decided its time to chip away at our constitutional rights. I'm with the fellow who said to "remember in November". The U.S. is rapidly becoming something the founding fathers never would have approved of. It's time to take back our country and throw the whole lot of them out of office next election.
Bit of a pain for me as I am not a US resident or citizen but was using a US bank.
- John
Why gamble when you can code? :)
There's no adrenalin in coding :-)
There's no adrenalin in coding :-)
Says you! :-P
- John
