With the internet changing how almost every industry functions, it’s not surprising that it might affect gambling laws too. There were already some uneasy grey areas in the laws that apply to real-life gambling, but with the advent of online casinos, the proliferation of poker websites, and a million opportunities for betting online, governments are now having to create a whole new regulatory environment for this burgeoning phenomenon.
In 2006, Congress passed a law that was meant to ban the means people used for placing online bets. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act effectively forbids American banks to transfer funds to or from any online gambling site. This meant Americans theoretically couldn’t place bets, even on websites registered in other countries and entirely legal there. American government protectionism has even gone so far as to prompt the arrest of executives of any company taking American money, if they set foot on American soil. Once this law passed, all gambling sites publicly listed on stock exchanges stopped taking bets from American customers. However, most privately-owned sites still allowed Americans to place bets.
And more than a few people noticed a bit of selectivity in how Congress wrote this law that supposedly blocked all betting online. For some reason, the ban wasn’t universal, with certain types of online gaming and gambling still allowed. And those exemptions, such as horse racing, fantasy sports sites, Indian gaming and state lotteries, just happened to be types of gambling the government received revenue from already. It wasn’t surprising that a few eyebrows were raised.
December 1, 2010 is the date when this law blocking betting online and similar gambling is set to be enforced. Yet the story isn’t over yet, because certain Democrat legislators are trying to introduce new laws to legalize and regulate internet casinos and other gaming, while certain Republican legislators are warning that this will destroy the very fabric of society, unlike the currently legal online horse race betting and state lotteries. It may be that 2010 will be the year where the legal status and fate of online betting in the United States will be decided once and for all.
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.
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.