Online casino gambling won't stop because of the US law | IXGAMES

When the us congress specifically criminalized Internet gambling at the end of September by outlawing credit-card payments to the services, it failed to stop aspiring card sharks and delusional Oakland Raiders fans from parting with their paychecks. Offshore sites simply set up shop where the U.S. law enforcers can’t reach them, and domestic gamblers are finding different alternative ways to pay them. So people who bet on online casinos will not face criminal prosecution under the law because it does not ban the Internet gambling - instead it requires that banks and other financial institutions block credit-card payments to online gambling sites (If you send a check in, you’ll be fine. There’s no way it’s going to stop). U.S. residents have been placing bets over the Internet since 1995, and from the outset some members of Congress have been trying to ban the activity. Their past efforts failed due to opposition from dog tracks, state lotteries, and other interests worried that such a prohibition would hamper their operations. Internet gambling is booming. By the last summer (2005), U.S. gamblers accounted for half of the industry’s US$12 billion in revenue, and online-gambling stocks such as that of PartyGaming were flying high on the London Stock Exchange. In July, Republicans in the House of Representatives passed an Internet gambling ban, but it encountered opposition in the Senate and appeared to be headed for yet another defeat until Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) attached it to an unrelated port-security bill–a move that guaranteed passage. When the bill passed in September, Frist denounced gambling as an addiction that “frays the fabric of society. In the wake of the law’s passage, investors in London sold off PartyGaming and other Internet gambling stocks, erasing $7 billion from the stock exchange in a matter of days. Many of those British companies said they would no longer accept wagers from their most lucrative market across the Atlantic. But other online gambling sites, such as the privately owned Bodog.com and PokerStars.com, say they will continue to serve American customers. Their Caribbean locales put them beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. The us congress could still decide to roll back or modify the law. The Poker Players Alliance hopes to mobilize the 23 million online card players in this country into a powerful lobby to counteract opposition to online gambling. “Prohibition doesn’t work” says Alliance president Michael Bolcerek. The congress should have offered legislation that places a high priority on making sure that kids don’t play poker online. I don’t see how the U.S. government can put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one.