Unrealistic Gambling Ban

A year ago last Saturday, President George W. Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and online gambling was banned in the U.S. *At least - that was the intention* Twelve months later, there are just as many people gambling online, if not more. Many bettors don’t even know the law was changed, partly because it was tacked on as an amendment to a measure aimed at increasing port security. The biggest difference now is that the companies offering online gambling are privately held and operate out of countries where it is impossible to know who controls them. The major public companies that used to offer online betting to Americans, such as PartyGaming Plc, 888 Holdings Plc and Sportingbet Plc, all quit the U.S. market last October at a cost of several billion dollars to their shareholders. The situation is - in short - a mess. As America learned during Prohibition, some bans are unrealistic. The online gambling law shows that legislators weren’t paying enough attention in history class. Banning some types of online gambling while allowing exemptions for lotteries and horse racing is protectionism of the worst kind. The law may have made it harder for children to gamble online. (And that’s good) There is a chance that the U.S. may be forced to repeal the law. The Antiguan government, which licensed many of the online sports bookies targeting the American market, has taken the U.S. to the World Trade Organization, arguing that anti-gambling laws restrict free trade. The WTO agreed, but the Americans have so far ignored the rulings. The U.S. may be forced to change its stance once WTO sanctions start to bite. If legislators were brave, they would use the WTO ruling as an excuse to reverse the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and instead legalize and tax the online gambling industry. That would allow the U.S. government to know who was offering its citizens the chance to gamble. Laws that are either widely disobeyed or unworkable are bad laws. A year after its passing, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is both disobeyed and unworkable. To contact the writer *Joe Saumarez-Smith* at: [email protected]