Friday, October 06, 2006

Online gambling in the U.S. could soon be history in the wake of a recently
passed bill banning the favourite pasttime of many Americans. Causing much
uproar in the industry, the United States Congress passed a surprise
legislation that would essentially prevent banks and credit card companies
from paying out funds to Websites for online gambling. All that's left is
for President George W. Bush to sign the papers, which Reuters says most
analysts believe is a "certainty". The bill has been incorporated into the
Safe Port Act, which, although meant to improve homeland security, includes
30+ pages related to the topic of the prevention of online gambling. The
only exceptions offered are in relation to horse racing and state lotteries.
A group of poker advocates (including companies and players) expressed their
frustrations that the government skipped the public debate process on the
topic entirely, and simply "piggy-backed [the bill] onto a bill that was
guaranteed to pass." Michael Bolcerek, President of the Poker Players
Alliance, also spoke out against the bill, saying that it "reeks of
political gamesmanship. Congress has an opportunity to regulate and tax
online poker leading to potentially billions of dollars in annual revenue
for the federal government and the states," he said. "If the goal is to
protect people from the possible dangers of gambling, a prohibition is the
worst way of achieving it. All it will do is push poker underground,
essentially creating online speakeasies, which will provide no protection
for youths, no services for the problem gambler, and leave only the most
unscrupulous operators in the game." If the bill is passed, not only will
the U.S. be filled with disgruntled players and online gambling site
providers, but financial institutions will have to pay closer attention to
their transactions, keeping a watchful eye on anything related to online
gambling.