ONLINE GAMBLING MOVES ARE MORE POLITICS THAN POKER

(639) (9-October-2006)

Will offshore companies comply with US laws?

The latest US political moves to short-circuit online gambling were analysed in an excellent article in the Las Vegas Sun over the weekend that surmised that the proposals rammed through Congress as it went into recess recently were more about politics than poker.

Pointing out that the bill doesn't criminalise players for gambling online, the article says that the latest proposal applies criminal and civil penalties to institutions such as banks, credit card companies and online cash deposit services that process the bets.

It also allows state and federal regulators to shut down Web casinos and halt methods of linking to those sites, including Internet ads and portals.

But it's uncertain how actively or effectively regulators, who have 9 months to come up with detailed regulations, will pursue such measures or whether foreign companies will bow to U.S. law enforcement, a key element in practical terms.

The author of the Las Vegas Sun story suggests that for Internet poker to truly become legit in the United States and evolve from an offshore enterprise to a business that U.S. gaming companies can participate in, casinos need to mount a legal challenge to the Wire Act or pass legislation in Congress that legalises Internet gambling. The odds are better on the former, though some shift in power away from religious conservatives who have dominated the Internet gambling debate could help legislative efforts.

From a strictly US player perspective, the article opines that members of the US online gambling public can rest easy when it comes to the federal authorities. The FBI has not shown any desire to arrest gamblers in their homes, nor would the Justice Department have the time or resources to do down that highly contentious road.

The same holds true in Nevada, one of few states that prohibit players and operators from engaging in online gambling. State regulators haven't licensed Internet operators so as not to run afoul of the feds. Busting people who gamble on offshore sites, they say, is outside the state's jurisdiction and a federal concern.

The newspaper quotes Internet gambling expert and Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose , who joins other experts in criticising the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act as a well-timed political manouevre: