Gambling.Now!

[tag]Omakase[/tag] [tag]Links[/tag] from [tag]Amazon[/tag] [tag]Associates[/tag] for [tag]gambling[/tag] content

This information does not purport to be the alpha and omega of online gaming laws. Please in accordance to your local laws:

United States

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled^[2] in November 2002 that the [tag]Federal Wire Act[/tag] prohibits electronic transmission of information for sports betting across state lines but affirmed a lower court ruling^[3] that the Wire Act “‘in plain language’ does not prohibit Internet gambling on a game of chance.”

Some states have specific laws against online gambling of any kind. Also, owning an online gaming operation without proper licensing would be illegal, and no states are currently granting online gaming licenses.

In March 2003, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John G. Malcolm testified before the Senate Banking Committee regarding the special problems presented by online gambling. A major concern of the United States Department of Justice is online money laundering. The anonymous nature of the Internet and the use of encryption make it especially difficult to trace online money laundering transactions.

In April 2004 [tag]Google[/tag] and [tag]Yahoo![/tag], the two largest internet search engines, announced that they were removing online gambling advertising from their sites. The move followed a United States Department of Justice announcement that, in what some say is a contradiction of the Appeals Court ruling, the Wire Act relating to telephone betting applies to all forms of Internet gambling, and that any advertising of such gambling “may” be deemed as aiding and abetting. Critics of the Justice Department’s move say^{[citation needed]} that it has no legal basis for pressuring companies to remove advertisements and that the advertisements are protected by the First Amendment. As of April 2005, Yahoo! has provided advertising for “play money” online gaming.

In August 2004, Casino City, an online portal for internet gambling sites, sued the US Department of Justice. The complaint alleged, inter alia, that the websites business—promoting internet gambling—was legal, and requested a declaration from the court that its business was protected by the First Amendment. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana dismissed the case in February of 2005.

In its opinion, the District Court wrote,

It is well-established that the First Amendment does not protect the right to advertise illegal activity… The government’s interest is specifically directed towards the advertising of illegal activity, namely Internet gambling… Furthermore, the speech in which the plaintiff wishes to engage is misleading because it falsely portrays the image that Internet gambling is legal… Because plaintiff’s speech concerns misleading information and illegal activities, it does not fall within the speech that is protected by the First Amendment.^[5]

The US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, dismissed [tag]Casino City[/tag]’s appeal in January, 2006.

In February 2005 the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize and regulate online poker and online poker cardroom operators in the State. Testifying before the State Senate, Nigel Payne, CEO of Paradise Poker, pledged to relocate to the state if the bill became law. However, the measure was defeated by the State Senate in March 2005. Rep. Jim Kasper, who sponsored the 2005 legislation, plans to introduce similar bills in the 2007 North Dakota legislative session.

In July 2006, David Carruthers, the CEO of BetonSports, a company publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange was detained in Texas while changing planes on his way from London to Costa Rica. He and ten other individuals had been previously charged in a sealed indictment with violations of US Federal laws relating to illegal gambling. While as noted above, a United States Appeals court has stated that the Wire Act does not apply to non-sports betting, the Supreme Court of the United States previously refused to hear an appeal of the conviction of Jay Cohen, where lower courts held that the Wire Act does make it illegal to own a sports betting operation that offers such betting to United States citizens.

The BetOnSports indictment alleged violations of at least 9 different Federal statutes, including 18 USC Sec. 1953 (Operation of an Illegal Gambling Business). Carruthers is currently under house arrest on a one million dollar bail bond.

In September 2006, [tag]SportingbetPLC[/tag] reported that its chairman, Peter Dicks, was detained in New York City on a Louisiana warrant while traveling in the United States on business unrelated to online gaming. Louisiana is one of the few states that has a specific law prohibiting gambling online. At the end of the month, New York dismissed the Louisiana warrant.^[12]

Also in September 2006, just before adjourning for the midterm elections, both the House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation (as an amendment to the unrelated Safe Port Act) that would make transactions from banks or similar institutions to online gambling sites illegal. This differs from a previous bill passed only by the House that expanded the scope of the Wire Act. The passed bill only addresses banking issues.^[13] The act was signed into law on October 13, 2006 by President George W. Bush, and there is a provision for a 270-day period to develop enforcement measures. At the bill-signing ceremony, Bush never mentioned the Internet gambling measure, which was supported by the National Football League and opposed by banking groups.

In response to this new legislation, a number of online gambling operators including PartyGaming, The bwin Group, Cassava Enterprises, and Sportingbet announced that real-money gambling operations would be suspended for U.S. customers. PartyGaming’s stock dropped by 60% following its announcement. Other operators such as [tag]PokerStars[/tag], Bodog, and WSEX.com announced their intention to continue serving customers in the U.S.

On April 26, 2007, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced [tag]HR 2046[/tag], the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA). The [tag]IGREA[/tag] would modify the [tag]UIGEA[/tag] by providing a provision for licensing of Internet gambling facilities by the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. On June 8, 2007, the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Barney Frank, held a hearing entitled, “Can Internet Gambling Be Effectively Regulated to Protect Consumers and the Payments System?”. Expert witnesses at the hearing testified that Internet gambling can be effectively regulated for age verification, money laundering issues, facilitation of state and federal tax collection, and for issues relating to compulsive gambling.

On June 7, 2007, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) introduced HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act. This act would legalize Internet poker, bridge, chess, and other games of skill. Also on June 7, Rep. Jim McDermott [D-WA] introduced H.R. 2607, the Internet Gambling Tax Act. The IGTA would legislate Internet gambling tax collection requirements.

Australia

On the 28th of June 2001 the Australian Government passed the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA). The government said that the IGA was important to protect Australians from the harmful effects of gambling.

The IGA targets the providers of interactive gambling services, not their potential or actual customers. The IGA makes it an offence to provide an interactive gambling service to a customer physically present in Australia, but it is not an offence for Australian residents to play poker or casino games online. In stark contrast to the USA, sports betting online is also completely legal in Australia, with many state government licensed sportsbooks in operation, such as Centrebet, Sportingbet & [tag]Betfair[/tag].

The offence applies to all interactive gambling service providers, whether based in Australia or offshore, whether Australian or foreign owned. The offense carries a maximum penalty of $220,000 per day for individuals and $1.1 million per day for bodies corporate. (More information regarding the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 can be found Here.

Complaints regarding Online gambling facilities serving Australian users can be made to the Australian Communication and Media Authority at its Homepage.

Other countries

Various forms of online gambling are legal and regulated in many countries, including most members of the European Union and several nations in and around the Caribbean Sea.

In India it is neither legal nor illegal the Law is silent on the issue, but in the state of [tag]Maharashtra[/tag] it is a banned offence under the “[tag]Bombay Wager Act[/tag]“.

The government of the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which licenses Internet gambling entities, made a complaint to the World Trade Organization about the U.S. government’s actions to impede online gaming. The Caribbean country won the preliminary ruling but WTO’s appeals body somewhat narrowed that favorable ruling in April 2005. The appeals decision held that various state laws argued by Antigua and Barbuda to be contrary to WTO agreements were not sufficiently discussed during the course of the proceedings to be properly assessed by the panel. However, the appeals panel also ruled that the Wire Act and two other federal statutes prohibiting the provision of gambling services from Antigua to the United States violated the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services, or “GATS”. Although the United States convinced the appeals panel that these laws were “necessary” to protect public health and morals, the asserted United States defense on these grounds was ultimately rejected because its laws relating to remote gambling on horse-racing were not applied equally to foreign and domestic online betting companies, and thus the United States could not establish that its laws were non-discriminatory.^[16]

On March 30, 2007 the WTO confirmed the U.S. “had done nothing to abide by an earlier verdict that labeled some U.S. Internet gambling restrictions as illegal.”^[17]

On June 19, 2007, Antigua filed a claim with the WTO for USD $3.4 billion in trade sanctions against the United States, along with a request for authorization to ignore U.S. patent and copyright laws. This followed by a day similar demands for compensation made by the European Union.^[18]

I know you need to rationalize the effort, but could be considered [tag]spam[/tag]. Interesting product though [tag]culinaryprep[/tag].

Go SA!

[tag]Keno[/tag] is a popular bingo/lottery type game that can be found in a variety of locations – land based and internet casinos, lottery outlets and bingo halls. Keno is easy to play requiring the player to select numbers to be matched with those drawn by the house. The house advantage in Keno is usually very high (25%+) although in some rare circumstances a very large progressive jackpot can offer players an edge.

We all know about [tag]online gambling[/tag] being banned not long ago shutting huge huge poker, sports betting, and other casino sites. What some don’t realize is how great gambling really is for society. The ‘big board’ is the biggest casino on the planet. With futures you can bet not just on crops and how much a live cow will be worth in months to come, but you can “invest” in weather!?! Okay, you can hedge out dramatic temperature changes when growing crops, but buying and selling the snowfall in New York or Boston? There are some road plowing guys that drive pickup trucks with a blade on the front that whose income may swing a few thousand based on snowfall, but come on, this is just flat out gambling; and I see nothing wrong with it.

Now on to the more interesting news of late. Did you know it’s legal to bet on the winner of elections in the United States? SEC said that because it provides research it is The interesting thing is, they are right. The markets ([TAG]bookies[/TAG]) are more accurate than the “analysts” and “experts”.

Where does the line between gambling and investing stop? Is a foreign exchange trader with money leveraged at 200:1 where a .5% move can wipe out or double his account in few minutes really investing comparing to a sports follower who calculates the number of wins in a season a baseball team will have based on complex math? I think not.

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TWENTY QUESTIONS

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did [tag]gambling[/tag] affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use “gambling money” for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever [tag]gamble[/tag] longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?