Betting Against Online Gambling 175
conq writes "BusinessWeek.com has an article looking at the possible consequences if anti-gambling legislation is passed. From the article: 'Just how much of a setback is the proposed legislation for the $12 billion industry? While online gambling companies generate half their sales from U.S. gamblers, the industry is operated almost completely by companies beyond the reach of U.S. regulators. [...] It's a lot of smoke and mirrors and misstatements.'"
Coming from a gambling addict.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure this bill will be denounced on slashdot, but I really don't think of it as *that* evil. Sure, there are plenty of legitimate online gambling sites, but many of them are there solely to rip you off of your hard earned dollars, and often times people (unfortunately) cannot tell the difference. Maybe, just maybe, our elected legislators have our best interest in heart this time.
I mean in this day, is anyone really more than a few hours away from an Indian casino? Do you really need 24/7 access to gambling? It might be that the very few hours of distance is all that saves a lot of people from their self...
In my home state of PA (Score:5, Interesting)
But this bill isn't about protecting people, it's about protecting revenue. Afterall, if you can sit in the comfort of your own home wasting your money on gambling, why go out and do state-sanctioned gambling (lottery tickets and casinos). What you can't tax, you ban.
BTW, for gambling proponents endorsing building Casinos as a public good, just go to Atlantic City (hey, if you are a Senior Citizen, just take the bus for minimum cash, like $10, and they give you that and a little more back in slotmachine tokens - hell, you can probably cash your social security checks there too), and look at the streets directly behind the casinos. One street behind the Boardwalk, it becomes a total dump. All show, no substance.
Re:US card networks can block gaming category code (Score:3, Interesting)
And they are real hard to get in Panama, Sierra Leone, and Uzbekistan.
I know you are American, but get a grip - credit cards and the internet are world wide.
And anyone stupid enough to bet in circumstances where he is unable to detect whether he is playing against a computer that is programmed to cheat is probably doomed anyway. Why not send them to an asylum the moment the CIA monitoring shows they placed a bet? a lot of taxpayers dollars could be saved that way. - with Bush in charge, we can expect people to be extradited from places from Afganistan to Zaire for on-line gambling at any moment. I am not sure why America feels the need to import the worlds dumbest criminals, but far be it for me to stop them.
Re:US card networks can block gaming category code (Score:5, Interesting)
Are citizens going to be prevented from transferring any money or holding any bank accounts outside the U.S.? How would they stop someone from simply mailing the funds as a money order or using a "shirea"(sp?)-type money transfer scheme?
Short of requiring the government to exclusively handle all citizens' money, and outlaw *any* transfer of citizens' money outside U.S. financial control, I see no way they can possibly prevent them gambling online, or even collect enough data to prosecute them for doing so.
Of course, one could put on his tinfoil hat and argue that this is a step in the direction of the government seizing (more) direct control of citizens' money.
Myself, I just think it's another short-sighted lawmaking exercise that will end up curtailing freedoms and hurting the U.S. economy with more regulatory and enforcement costs while not actually accomplishing the goals that are espoused for it's passage, something that the U.S. government is legendary for.
Cheers!
Strat
The tough issue will be gambling ads (Score:2, Interesting)
But if you can't run gambling ads, I think a lot of current and potential future sports information sites will be in trouble. There are only so many retro jerseys their advertisers can sell
Odd though it may sound, the big losers from a real crackdown on internet gambling might be fantasy sports players.
And nobody's explained to me why internet gambling is worse than lottery tickets, which are just another tax on the poor and uneducated, and are actually promoted by government-funded advertising.
Re:It will have little effect long term... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not all of it will go offshore. You can expect a lot of Indian reserves to set up server farms on Indian-controlled land. This way, even if the credit card companies are forced to stop allowing online deposits, there's nothing to stop anyone from going to the local reserve and swiping their debit card, or having a friend who lives nearby deposit some cash.
Re:Not against Scripture (Score:3, Interesting)
My boss gambles responsibly. He takes $800 to Vegas, and stays a week. Usually, he runs through that budget before the week is out, and goes to shows for the rest of the time. Sometimes, he comes back with more money than he left with. The point is, he budgets the gambling money in advance. I remember when some casinos tried to deal with the addiction problem by requiring all their customers to declare a budget in advance (no loans). But the addicts just go find a sleazier casino.
P.S.
I also just remembered that there are many references to "casting lots" in scripture. This is not gambling for money (except when the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothes at the crucifixion), but making decisions the "einie, meenie, meinie, mo" way - except that God is usually believed to determine the outcome.
This could be interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously, the only thing to do is to somehow catch it when American-based credit card companies are exchanging funds between an American and an online gambling company.
But how do you tell if the company is an online gambling company or not?
Well, the credit card companies might know, but if a company is overseas it's entirely possible that the CC company might not know all the details of the business. It may be listed with the CC company as a business that does something else entirely, and not even necessarily be lying about it (since the last time I checked, CC companies only want to know what is a merchant's _primary_ business, not all of the details behind every single transaction they ever do).
So... how do you tell if any particular CC transaction is connected to online gambling or not?
Ultimately, you can't. So the only thing left to do at this point is to impose fines on any and all credit card transactions with businesses other countries, regardless of what business they are actually in.
I don't use online gambling sites myself, but I am _SO_ curious to see how this whole thing plays out.... (like a traffic accident, you can't look away, even when you want to).