NEWS: GOP Bets Big on Internet Gambling Ban

POLITICS: GOP Bets Big on Internet Gambling Ban

At a time of international turmoil, with daily reports of violence from Iraq, nuclear war threatened from North Korea, and reports of the Taliban gaining strength in Afghanistan, Congress has chosen to take decisive action on the key issue of our time: internet gambling. That's right, the morality police are back, and this time they've got online gambling in their sights. And exemptions for horse racing and interstate lotteries remained in the bill despite the obvious hypocrisy inherent in them. I suppose the bible says ponies are OK?

That's right! Just like flag burning! And gay marriage! And not having "under God" in the pledge of allegiance! Have I forgotten any of the other idiotic election year issues that the Republican majority has crammed down our throats? Barney Frank (D-MA) succinctly sums up the major philosophical objection to the bill:

I thought that was the whole idea behind libertarianism, which is supposed to be a driving force in the Republican party. I guess not, seeing as how easily the bill passed (though there were likely more than a few spineless Dems in the mix, given the overwhelming majority vote the bill received.)

Pay attention Republicans, this is your party at work. Not the party of liberty, or of an "ownership society" (that tells you how you can and can't enjoy your free time and money), or the party that was going to free Washington from special interest groups, but the party that panders to a moralizing bunch of crusaders who want to turn the country into a Christian taliban piece by piece. Well, that is, unless another interested group lobbies hard enough to get an exemption for themselves. The modern GOP: Christian extremist morality, with exceptions available for a price.

As much as this might impose on our freedoms. Who's not happy to see those fucking party-poker commercials go off the air?

But hey, maybe if they ban this and hotdog eating contests, the terrorists won't hate us as much anymore.

Congress says that they want to ban internet gambling because people gamble to excess. They'll tell you stories of people losing their retirement or their child's college fund gambling. In a manner typical of American government, the best solution they can muster is banning the activity outright and claiming that they do so to protect society and problem gamblers from themselves, while at the same time they protect various forms of state lotteries. Personally, I know of more people that are spending far more than they should on scratch-off tickets than on internet gambling.

Does that mean i can't play poker on-line anymore? Fuckers

Gambling was created to test the faithful. One cannot go against the will of God.

If it wasn't wrong it wouldn't be in the Ten Commandments.

Thank God we still got the "hiccup" ponies, and those friendly faces outside the OTB down the street, god bless them.

I thought Arrakis was created to test the faithful?

Sir, kindly step the fuck back up offa our hot dog eatin' contests. That's entirely un-American, right there. We ain't out fightin' terrorists so's you can just go givin' away our rights to our hot dog eatin' contests, for chrissakes.

Does this bunch of retards running the show realise that they only have an influence on US companies and not on any based in the rest of the world. So if say canada allows online gaming then they cant stop americans from gaming online. Its the same as the US war on porn shit if the company is based out side of the US they have no jurisdiction over said company. So if say SG registers its self as a business in Germany or somewhere that doesnt give a fuck about what concenting adults do they cant do a damn thing to that company although moving a company to another country is a bit extreme but its been done before to achive tax benefits and get away with the hole slave labour thing.

jerks

I thought those poker sites they advertised on TV weren't gambling sites. There's always a disclaimer at the bottom that says so.


Oh, and thanks, Congress, for doing such important work! You truly have our best interests at heart!

If I have to get a real job again I'm gonna be pissed.

No this just means you have to set up accounts in foreign banks to gamble. I am not sure what the deal is with e-banks but I believe in theory those could still pay out as wel. Might be a grey area for a while.

I don't think so. Look at the Palestinian government's trouble getting banking services. The US threaten legal action against banks working with them and so they've been reduced to moving money as cash. How many banks in the world don't have any presence in the US? What there are would have difficulty working with US citizens, and there'd still be the option of threatening any bank with did business with one of those banks with legal action.

There was a law alone similar lines to do with companies doing business with Cuba. I seem to remember that it had problems extending beyond US companies, but who did business in the US, though they gave it a good try. Might work better with banks, on a less international matter. Hard to say.

1) They're worried about taxable income, much like the states that impose sales tax for intra-state sales (*like yours) by taking advantage of telepresence
2) NY state taxes telecommuters as if they were real commuters and gets away with it, so if there is a free ride why would anyone expect people not to jump on the bandwagon
3) Micropayments are a huge economic pull for governments. Paypal and it's international equivalents represent a huge pool of liquid assets, which maked regulators drool
4) they (regulators) tried to take a haircut on Gramien Bank's intl. transactions & cash transactioins. Took a lot to convince them that subsistance industry wsn't the thing to tax

4 points that just highlight the economic tensions of the issue ( which ultimately is going to be tied to "net nutrality".
"those guys just don't get our interests" isn't really a cogent objection,

Look, what Internet gambling effectively is at present is a water spigot that pumps American money to offshore companies that are very likely foreign based.

This law seems to be crafted thoughtfully, though personally I'd have gone for something that repipes that money spigot into my back yard. Though Nevada's gaming industry has been cautious about net gaming. Perhaps because it was already rampant by the time they gave a thought to setting up a legal version of it here.

Outside of my "Only In My Back Yard" feelings, what you have to realize is that I know and meet people that excessive gambling has really done a number on. At least the difference with you having to fly here to legally play poker for money or bet on sports is that there's travel involved. You maybe only getting two weeks of vacation per year puts a healthy distance between you and the monkey on your back. Even having to deal with the Mafia does that to some extent. Sure, Paulie Walnuts is going to shake you down for whatever you're worth if you don't pay your bet off in time. Even with the lotto you have to drive to the store, and anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence knows that the odds are worse than the mob gives unless it's "bonus days."

I'm uncomfortable with gaming being something akin to a video game you can play in your underwear. Trust me when I say it makes it THAT MUCH EASIER to blow your wad when you know nobody's seeing you take the beating.

With Nevada's gaming industry, Atlantic City's more limited version of same, and all the reservations out there with casinos, the money gets pushed around America, but it stays in America. Tini, Amina, and myself don't have to pay state taxes, and Viva and I__Zombie get their paychecks. With the offshore gaming, for all you know it's the Russian mob or Al'Qaeda getting your money.

And how this law stops it, is it prohibits credit card companies from paying offshore online casinos. Offshore web gambling is ALREADY ILLEGAL IN THE U.S.

A lot of good points there ASSHOLE, but the idea of the government stopping you for your own good isn't especially pleasant.

How about some middle ground? Set the rules (taxes) for online gambling such that US companies get the lions share. Set up a list of names of people don't want to be allowed to gamble, with the option of getting off the list 6 months after asking to.

Clearly loads of people love the idea of vices (gambling, drugs, sex etc) being crimes, so I won't be too surprised if you don't like my idea

Well, first you would need to legalize online gambling. That's been illegal in the U.S. for some time. In fact, the majority of people on the first page appear not to realize that they would be breaking the law using these sites.

The proposed new law doesn't ban Internet gaming. It simply makes it illegal to break that law with your credit card. I'd have nothing against it becoming legal, I suppose, but that'd be a slippery slope to Nevada just being another state and Las Vegas just being another (fucking hot) city.

If that happened, we might have to actually legalize prostitution in Vegas after all (like half the idiots in the U.S. think we already have).

HA HA , fabulous

*woman in the crowd shrieks "Think of Las Vegas!"*

I'm just thinking, a couple of my SGVegas friends live over near a bar called the "Funhog Ranch." Imagine if it started living up to what the name suggests?

The legality of online gambling is not so cut and dry as you might like to make it out to be AH.

The WTO found in favor of Antigua, who argued that US policy on internet gambling is in violation of international law.

Furthermore, the Justice Department has sought to ban internet gambling by use of the Wire Act. In November of 2002 the US Fifth Circuit Court ruled that the Wire Act did not apply to games of chance, but rather wagering on sporting events. The US Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

There are very few states with specific prohibitions to online gambling.

Therefore, I believe I am sitting on some quasi-legal ground when I play poker online. Is it legal, is it illegal? At the moment, the courts are saying that yes, it is legal.

The only questions about the legality of online gambling is where the the gambling takes place.

Most games of chance are illegal per state law, except for exceptions such as lotteries, charities (church bingo) and Native American casinos (which are still state-regulated to a degree).

If it's illegal for you to shoot craps for money on the street, would it not also be illegal for you to shoot craps on the Internet for money?

I'm no lawyer, but I'd guess the Wire Act was used to bring the case you mentioned into Federal jurisdiction. Gaming laws outside of that law are generally state or local laws.

The Wire Act does a few things. It is intended to prevent sports betting operations from "laying off action" in other states.

Overlong explanation of the Wire Act's intent follows:

The Wire Act is a Federal crime because then and just about only then does sports betting cross state lines. It's a law against organized crime. And since I'd be difficult to prosecute in Maryland for running a sports betting operation over the phone from Nevada, it stops me from importing sports gambling to other states.

The legal question is "Does playing blackjack for money over the Intarweb equate to playing blackjack for money at a local illegal casino?" Part of the problem may be that most gambling laws go after the person running the game, not the players.

The biggest and best reason to be for this law is that without something like this, there's no real way to assure that players are of a legal age to gamble. In Nevada, if you're not obviously 21+, you can and often will get carded at a casino. You don't have to be 21 to possess a credit card. I think this site has in the past had instances where people who weren't even 18 had credit cards.