With internet gambling becoming more and more popular, in America as well as the rest of the world, it’s unfortunate that the position American gamblers are in is not very clear. On one hand, since 2006 it’s officially been a felony for banks to send or receive funds from any online gambling website. Yet many experts say individual bettors, if they find another way to transfer funds, can make online bets with impunity. Well, unless they live in one of the states that penalize the individual as well as banks. How is a person to know what to do?
What will happen if someone places an online bet? According to the www.vegasclick.com site, nothing will happen. No individual has ever been prosecuted for doing so. Even the 2006 law was aimed at banks, not individual bettors. So if a person finds a way to get their funds to their favorite offshore betting site, they can carry on. Michael Bluejay, writing at the site in 2007 following passage of the law, said Americans are going to continue online gambling and nobody is likely to stop them, law or not.
Of course, most major offshore gambling sites didn’t quite see it that way. Several resisted at first, scoffing that a law made in the United States shouldn’t have jurisdiction over websites fully registered and legal in their own country. But eventually they decided that the hassle was just too great, especially when a couple of executives from those sites were arrested on American soil and prosecuted. So one by one, most of them announced they would no longer be accepting online bets from Americans.
American gamblers who are determined are going to find ways to place online bets, even if they can’t use banks to transfer funds. After all, in 2009 they did it to the tune of about eight billion dollars. So the gambling law trying to block the flow of money doesn’t actually work. As a result, legislators are now trying to change the law so online gambling becomes legal, and can be taxed and regulated instead. If this happens, bettors will finally have a better idea where they stand, and the government will have discovered a new and badly needed source of revenue.
Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed panic attacks help as well as tips on the various medications for panic disorder available at www.anxietydisordercure.com.
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