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Online
Gambling
Legislation/History
Until
recently,
gambling legislation in
the United States had not changed much since
Congress passed the Wire
Act in 1961. This, however, only covered sports
betting and not
casinos. There was also no World Wide Web or
Internet Casinos during
those days.
Legalized Internet Gambling began in 1994 when
the twin-islands Antigua
and Barbuda in the Caribbean passed the Free
Trade & Processing
Act, allowing licenses to be given to companies
for opening online
casinos. Legal casino betting continued to
evolve through 1996, when
the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was formed. As a
regulatory branch of
the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake in Quebec,
Canada, they began
policing and issuing licenses to worldwide legal
online casinos and
poker rooms. This marked the first attempt to
regulate legal U.S.
online betting by providing fair and transparent
operations.
In 1997 online gambling had exploded in
popularity, with about 225
websites offering online casinos, up
significantly from just over a
dozen such websites in earlier years. The Frost
and Sullivan market
research report showed that way back in 1998,
legal online betting
revenues had reached over $800 million globally.
Legal poker betting
also began to appear on the Internet in 1998.
Interactive multiplayer
world wide web gambling began a year later,
allowing a community type
of experience, with the ability to chat with
other players. Measures to
control land-based casinos in the past have
worked as the casino had a
physical location. However, today casinos have
moved online with no
real physical location. The question arises how
legal are these online
casinos?
.
In 1998 both MasterCard and Visa sued Cynthia
Haines for money she lost
while gambling on an online
casino. She had lost more than
US$70,000 to
an online casino and could not settle her
account with the plaintiffs.
She filed a counterclaim well within the state
laws of California,
which prohibited credit card loans for gambling
whether it is online
casinos or bricks and mortar casinos. That case
was settled out of
court. Many states have now enacted their own
legislation, however,
casinos continue to move their gambling
operations off shore to online
casino friendly countries. Gambling has
increased drastically with the
advent of the Internet and online casinos. With
huge profits and vested
interest in casinos there are also very strong
lobbyists in government
to keep gambling unimpeded. The Internet
Gambling Prohibition Act,
which was defeated in 2000, shows how much
vested interest there is in
the casino and gaming industry. Cyberspace is
the last frontier when it
comes to laws governing casinos. With billions
of dollars changing
hands around the world on online gambling today,
sooner or later
legislation will be needed in order to exercise
some form of control in
this ongoing Internet casino industry.
Only time will tell how
long it will take for US legislation to catch-up
with online casinos
and all forms of Internet gambling.
So, is Online
Gambling
Legal
in the United States?
This is the one question that you will surely
see answered in at least
a half dozen different ways while searching the
Internet.
What you should know at this time is that most
types of online gambling
are not illegal in any way for the player as all
the liability falls
with the gambling operators. The Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act (UIGEA) that passed in 2006 simply made it
illegal for gambling
sites to accept money from U.S. residents for
the purpose of wagering.
But since the U.S. has no jurisdiction over
offshore gambling
enterprises, they simply ask that banks deny any
potential transactions
with those operators. In doing so, U.S.
residents do have a bit harder
time finding a viable deposit method such as
credit cards like
MasterCard, Visa, Discover, etc. Since then,
Online Casinos have made
it very easy for a player to deposit money. They
generally offer
several different deposit options.
There are currently many changes going on with
online gambling laws in
the U.S., and if you are truly worried about the
legalities you need to
be sure to check the exact laws in your state
before you gamble. Some
states including Delaware, New Jersey & Las
Vegas, NV have actually
legalized online gambling. Residents from those
states & possibly
others in the near future will want to make sure
to use those gambling
sites that are regulated by the state in which
they live.
The best news we can tell all American players
to make them feel
somewhat better about gambling online is the
fact that no U.S.
residents has ever gone to jail or has even been
fined for
participating in this activity. What are they
going to do? Arrest
millions of people who
every
year in America?
Fact is, if it were truly an unlawful act, don't
you think they would
actually physically stop residents from visiting
these sites? You can
click any banner on this site and there will be
nothing stopping you
from going to these sites or signing up for an
account unless the
website itself forbids it.
For the foreseeable future it seems as though
Internet gambling in the
US will continue to proliferate on a
state-by-state basis, before a
federal law is finally passed. Be assured, a
number of politicians,
lawyers and professional lobbyists are
continuing the fight for virtual
gaming to be made legal across the United States
of America.
Evon Freda
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