New at Reason

David Weigel | October 25, 2006

Jacob Sullum teases out the absurdities and loopholes in the new online gambling ban.

Comments

|10.25.06 @ 9:04AM|#

Anyone who wants a more comprehensive analysis of the situation & a view of the war from the trenches can go to:
www.cardplayer.com/poker_law/
(sorry, I don't know how to post links yet).
Some of the online poker sites are freaking out and abandoning their American customers, others are taking advantage of the confusion and are actually expanding their business in the US. Risk vs reward, no balls, no blue chips.

This war is just getting started, there are billions at stake and the early dispatches from the front lines indicate that the internet gaming industry is well armed and up to the challenge.

Tanya|10.25.06 @ 9:17AM|#

But as a visit to any of the sites that continue to serve Americans confirms, there are several alternative payment methods the government will have a hard time blocking ... the U.K.-based Neteller system...

Neteller has already announced it intends to act as though it were operating within US jurisdiction.

Statement Here.

Brad: specifically, publicly-traded companies in the UK and Australia will comply with the new law. This is largely because the parent company and/or board members of the parent company have other American-facing business, and do not wish to be subject to civil litigation from shareholders, nor can they afford to be unable to travel in the US.

In some cases (like Partygaming) they have chosen to simply not face the US market anymore. In other cases (like Sportingbet) they've chosen to sell off their US-facing business.

To date, not a single privately-held company has dropped out of the market.

|10.25.06 @ 9:22AM|#

Apparently I don't know how to post links, either.

Neteller Statement:

http://content.neteller.com/content/en/member_businessupdate.htm

|10.25.06 @ 9:58AM|#

THREADJACK!!!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15398149/?GT1=8618

2nd earth needed by 2050. Better statrt packing.

Ron Hardin|10.25.06 @ 10:12AM|#

I bet that everything can be explained by noticing which gambling activities have money-laundering potential and which don't. (=you pay somebody by letting them win.)

|10.25.06 @ 10:16AM|#

I suck at gambling.

I lost around $200 on the weekend at the Blackjack table at our local Casino. To make matters worse, I had instructed my girlfriend that I was going to pretend to be a Russian Oligarch and that, as such, she was not to address me or look me in the eye but simply serve me beverages. I wanted to build up a terrifying charisma, to strike fear into the dealers heart. Unfortunately, I only know three words in Russian - Da, Glasnost and Perestroika. And when the dealer actaully spoke, ten minutes into my routine, he had a heavy Russian accent and politely informed me that his blackjack beat my sixteen.

From now on, I'm sticking to penny machines.

|10.25.06 @ 10:38AM|#

Seems to me that driving internet gambling offshore actually does reduce GDP -- it's a pretty much guaranteed way to worsen th trade deficit. If the gambling is within the US, at least the money stays in the country.

As for refridgerator regulation... Right now there's a pretty bad moral hazard for landlords to buy the least efficient fridges an AC units, since they pocket the savings, while the renter gets socked with the higher electricity price. And increasing the absolute demand for electricity drives up the price for the neighbors. So if anything it makes better sense than banning online gambling.

|10.25.06 @ 10:57AM|#

Mark VIII:
LOL!

I was a Blackjack Dealer a few years back, I would take take take, sometimes I would give. One time at around 10 a.m. (I had the morning shift) one of the regulars, a nice middle-age lady, sat down at my table and said, "I've already lost $2,000 today". She then plopped down $500 dollars and I took it all in less than 5 minutes. She staggered away from the table looking like the doctor had just given her 2 weeks to live.
Don't play Blackjack.

|10.25.06 @ 1:16PM|#

Jacob, I played online poker for small stakes until last week. I played with money the government was kind enough to leave me in my paycheck from which they had already taken their cut. So now it is illegal for me to send funds to a poker site from the US and Louisiana as one of the states having laws already enacted on the books.

My question is how then can it be legal for people illegally in our country to wire untaxed money back to their native countries? Should the government not crack down on the transfer of funds to overseas via Western Union and other such wire transfer places by people who are not even legally in this country to begin with? Why does a native American who has already been taxed on his income have his freedoms outlawed when he wants to play poker with a portion of his remaining money. While all at the same time the exact same thing is essentially being done by people within our country illegally using untaxed money without any worry about the law. Is it because once your breaking the law you are free to continue to do so long as your not an American Citizen? Seems to me the illegals in this country have more rights than those of us who have had families here dating back over 100 years.

We are so far removed from common sense and freedom in this country these days, I am afraid it is to late to change anything now as those in power make sure the only changes made are ones that are self serving.

They want to allow online gambling so long as it is their very own cherry picked venues to do so. Off track betting just fine, sales of tickets for lotteries in other states just fine. YOu want to play poker from your home after work TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE..

|10.25.06 @ 1:38PM|#

A lot of words will be written here and else where about what it means, solutions, countermeasures etc., etc.

There is only one answer to this oppresive measure. The same answer to socialized medicine and all the other oppression coming down the pipe.
Its an answer that is over two hundreds years old.

It's the militia. The Libertarian militia.
I hereby volunteer with my M1A Springfield rifle.
Let's roll.