USA Worried About Online Gambling Popularity

The topic of the US struggle against the online gambling industry is troubling the gambling community. There is an old Wire Act (1961) in effect in the US which prohibits betting with the aid of telephone, telegraph, and other wire communication facilities outside its own state boundaries. Gamblers consider that this prohibition does not apply to the Internet, while the official establishment has a different opinion.

The American DOJ has banned casino advertisements in search systems and on television, bank deposits at online casinos (not even banned, rather than strongly recommended, but it’s a proposal that can’t be turned down). At the same time Antigua through the WTO courts reached a decision according to which the United States should legally prohibit its citizens from playing in any online casino or remove all barriers related to gambling. Several years ago efforts to adopt a barrier law failed in the US parliament still at the House level Situs Casino Bet88 .

In early 2006 there was no significant progress on the struggle with online gambling in the US, but over the course of the year there were a number of serious causes for talk of stronger measures against online casinos. It all started with the new law on the prohibition of gambling games on the Internet. The same senators Kyl, Leach and Goodlatte who joined them proposed another draft (now known as HR4777) on a ban on US citizens from online gambling games (all types of gambling, including betting on sports, casino, poker, except for horse racing and betting). fantasy sports). In accordance with this law, banks must completely block opportunities for gamblers to make deposits at casinos, and gamblers themselves are under threat of a large fine or a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Despite the fact that many polls show that the majority of the population in the US does not support the given law, it was adopted by the US Congressional House of Representatives with a majority of 3/4 of the vote. It is planned that it will be considered by the Senate, after which it will be passed for the signature of George Bush who, as is well known, does not feel sympathy for games of chance. Fortunately, there were some difficulties with the bill in the Senate; the audience was moved to the fall session. Information emerged that the bill might not pass the Senate from the first, in which case a conciliation commission of the two Houses of Congress would delay the adoption of the bill for a considerable period of time.

The success of passing the bill in the Lower House of Congress was, obviously, promoted by the scandal surrounding well-known lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He was accused of not paying taxes and fraud with real casino money. It was his active position that in many aspects contributed to the failure of the previous anti-on-line bill, but at the same time after the scandal, many legislators tried to distance themselves from supporting the new bill.

The fight against gambling in the US is taking place not only at the level of the country as a whole, but also at individual countries. The first signs appear in the state of Washington (not to be confused with the US capital, the city of Washington which was the first to pass its own anti-on-line law as an extension of the Wire Act. From now on gambling via the Internet or other means of communication (mobile phones) , palms intended here etc.) threatens residents of Washington state with a fine of up to $10,000 and (or) imprisonment for a term of up to five years. informs online gaming is prohibited. This law went into effect on June 7, 2006, although, there was no case of its application for two months.

One more hit delivered by the US DOJ. On 20 July David Carruthers was arrested, Chief Executive of one of the online gambling companies BetonSports, at the time it happened at the Dallas airport where David was taken off a transit flight from England to Costa Rica. He was presented with a number of charges, including racket and non-payment of taxes, he was refused to be released on bail. The case also concerns several people, including company co-owner Gary Kaplan. Interesting, but David himself is a citizen of Great Britain, and the company is registered in Costa Rica. By the way, the Costa Rican authorities have refused to cooperate with Americans in this case, having made it clear that David and Beton Sports have not violated the laws of their country. BetonSports itself stopped working until August 14.