Congrats Congress: You've Succeeded In Keeping Gambling Execs Out

from the such-big-successes dept

Fri, Jul 21st 2006 4:09pm — Mike Masnick

So what has the impact really been of the arrest of David Carruthers, the CEO of online betting site BetOnSports? It certainly hasn't caused many people to stop gambling. However, it has convinced other online gambling execs to stay the hell out of the US. The organizer of a conference about the online gambling market which was scheduled for next week has now cancelled the conference, after many of the attendees bailed out, rather than face the possibility of arrest in the US. It's not clear what good this does. Online gambling is still very much available, and plenty of people in the US will still choose to use these sites. All that the government has guaranteed is that these execs won't come to the US, won't throw conferences here and will simply take their business elsewhere. Is that really a victory? While the government could choose to regulate the online gambling industry in the same manner they do for the offline gambling industry, instead they've just made sure that they get no part of the lucrative business that will now flow entirely to foreign countries. It won't stop people from gambling, though it will make them less protected and will prevent the US from collecting any taxes on it. It's hard to see how that represents any kind of victory.

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35 Comments

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Wire Cramped, 21 Jul 2006 @ 4:13pm

AHMEN!!!!
I like every word of that post!
governement - 0

stupid things government does: 1,234,634,562,977,122,118
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- Wire Cramped, 21 Jul 2006 @ 4:16pm
  
  Re: AHMEN!!!!
  DANG it I lost count and forgot to add this one in
  
  stupid things government does: 1,234,634,562,977,122,119
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  - DocMenach, 21 Jul 2006 @ 5:22pm
    
    Re: AHMEN!!!!
    I still think your count is off by a few orders of magnitude. Unless that is the count of stupid things the government has done just for this year.
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Wire Cramped, 21 Jul 2006 @ 5:23pm

yeah..... :(
well I said I lost count so then its this year but its close maybe within a few thousand
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Rick, 21 Jul 2006 @ 5:28pm

Dumbarses
Yeah great job!!! Ya know whats really screwed is that I live in Washington state. The great NW. It has been voted in that it is a FELONY to gamble online here. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!

Someone has already been hassled with this new law and they only have a page which has gambling forums, and links to online gambling sites.

The new count,,,
1,234,634,562,977,122,120
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 6:45pm

You could probably just start a ticker... add three per second or so.
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dorpus, 21 Jul 2006 @ 6:47pm

Money Laundering
Casinos are venues for money laundering. Also, casino proceeds are taxable. If any joe schmoe was allowed to trade money online outside US jurisdiction, it would greatly complicate money laundering investigations, asides from increasing ways for average citizens to commit financial crimes. With our present system of having a finite number of land-based casinos, the government can keep closer tabs.
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- the_real_zano, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:16pm
  
  Re: Money Laundering
  The argument you are making here is horribly flawed.
  
  One can launder money by mixing their illicit earnings with the revenue they get from ANY web-based enterprise that brings in revenue (much like any land-based business).
  
  Does this mean that we should disallow the use of web-based versions of grocery shopping, book stores, news sites, etc. because it would make it easier for the government to stop money laundering?
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  - R.E., 22 Jul 2006 @ 11:25am
    
    Re: Re: Money Laundering
    Casinos make laundering easier because there is a huge number of of transactions taking place and far less of a papertrail.
    
    A regular business is required by law to maintain a record of its transactions for 3 years, including all purchases, sales, payroll expenses, incidental expenses, maintenance expenses, etc.
    
    If these records are reviewed and it's found that the Mafia Pizzaria "sold" 10,000 pizzas but only bought enough ingredients for 100 pizzas, then it's pretty easy to either get a warrant for further investigation or prosecute them for tax evasion (which is how the feds actually got Al Capone, for instance).
    
    The government regulates the hell out of land casinos, and it is lesss friendly to internet casinos specifically because they are much, much harder to keep an eye on. It's a trivial exercise to purchase new domains or to relocate the entire operation to a server across the country. Moving across the globe isn't much more difficult.
    
    I can agree with what they're trying to do, and I dislike gambling in general (I've dealt with gambling addicts, and I've seen what can happen to their families).
    
    But, this approach is going to be remarkably ineffective, and every resource spent toward implementing is a resource that doesn't get put toward an effective social program.
    
    And *that* is what pisses me off.
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    - Al Lentz, 22 Jul 2006 @ 2:13pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Money Laundering
      M y feelings exactly.
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- JB, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:42pm
  
  Re: Money Laundering
  So if a law allowed online gambling provided the operation was US based you're arguement goes out the window a second time. The ability to launder money would be no greater than a brick & mortar casino.
  
  I would think there'd be a lot of the current casino operations in the US that would happily add an online component to increase their business.
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  - the_real_zano, 21 Jul 2006 @ 8:08pm
    
    Re: Re: Money Laundering
    Furthermore, if these online casinos were based in the US and were regulated by the government, strict record keeping could be enforced. This means that the government could conceivaby account for and track all of the activity related to the account of somebody suspected of money laundering.
    
    The result? This would actually make it *more* difficult to perform money laundering through online casinos than through their brick & mortar counterparts.
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  - haiku, 22 Jul 2006 @ 4:57am
    
    Re: Money Laundering
    Don't forget the NSA's monitoring of all of these transactions ...
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Tia, 22 Jul 2006 @ 3:37am

Works for me.
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ogman, 22 Jul 2006 @ 5:35am

It never ends...
More needless, puritanical garbage from the the U.S. Theocracy.
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- Jane Friedland, 23 Jul 2006 @ 5:07pm
  
  Re: It never ends...
  Are you Ogman of the Boca Ogmans?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Robert, 17 Oct 2007 @ 8:18am
    
    Re: Re: It never ends...
    Are you Dane from Delray ?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Surfer Boy, 17 Nov 2008 @ 9:32am
    
    Re: Re: It never ends...
    Looking for Dane Friedland who lived in
    Delray Beach 1963 - 1965.
    
    It's her surfer boy.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - scojjtoe (profile), 30 May 2010 @ 8:13am
      
      Re: Re: Re: It never ends...
      hey. i was a friend of dane's when she lived in new york and then we all moved to california together late 60's. i bumped into her a few years later when she was back with her family in philadelphia. i'd be so excited to find her again. have you had any luck?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - scojjtoe (profile), 30 May 2010 @ 8:14am
    
    Re: Re: It never ends...
    is this dane deland? of billie and dane? this is scott. if this is you, i'd love to talk to you. scojjtoe@aol.com
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- World Can't Wait!, 23 Jul 2006 @ 8:23pm
  
  Re: It never ends...
  Help say goodbye to American Theocracy at www.worldcantwait.org/
  
  Drive out the Bush Regime
  
  Make October 5th 2006 a day of mass resistance!
  
  They scream about morality but are the most unethical of all. Their whining about things like online gambling only serve to take our eyes off of the purely evil, tyranical stuff they're doing in the background...
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DWREID, 22 Jul 2006 @ 9:43am

Ummmm.. well.. they are stupid
If you got a chance to see the Republican from Alaska, who happens to chair the committee that regulates the Internet, explaining on television that the Internet was a bunch of tubes that get clogged up, then you will begin to understand the depth of the stupidity of our govenrment and the people who elect them.
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gurzot, 22 Jul 2006 @ 11:28am

Ted Stevens
The Daily Show covered Ted Stevens' from Alasaka's explanation well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P83FGtPCuvc
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Clark, 22 Jul 2006 @ 11:37am

Online gambiling
Here is one thing you're not taking into account. When you lose revenue from gambling, the state governments raise your property taxes to support very expensive education and makes it harder for a family to rent or own property. What do I care, I moved to Brazil when I retired to get away from that burden and live a descent life.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2006 @ 2:11pm

What about stock
It does not take cards to gamble. Look at the stock market. It is a huge gamble. When the bubble burst all sorts of people robbed regular investors. The Enron crooks did not have to pay back nearly as much as they stole and they did not pay it back to the people they stole from.

From the "Poker Players Alliance"

"On Tuesday, July 11, 2006, American poker players were dealt a bad hand by the U.S. House of Representatives. In a 317 to 93 vote the U.S. House passed H.R. 4411, sponsored by Jim Leach, R-Iowa, which would prohibit banks and credit card companies from processing payments for online gambling bets. It also includes the major provisions of another bill HR 4777 by Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., that would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access or disable hyperlinks to Web sites that offer online gambling.

Inexplicably, this legislation provides exemptions for online horse betting, Internet lotteries and certain fantasy sports, yet poker and other online games are swept into this prohibition bill."
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tim stevens, 22 Jul 2006 @ 4:00pm

do as I say and not as I do
congress (it doesn't deserve a capital 'C') wants to outlaw internet gambling but allow horse racing, Vegas gambling, bingo, and of course, state lotteries. such hyprocracy.
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Eric Martin, 22 Jul 2006 @ 9:24pm

Shell company.
How will the US. government find out you run a gambling business if you work with the host country and they say that they own the company ??? Profit $$$

It's an easy bypass of US laws.

I see alot of criminals getting into this business of hiding transactions.

Good job congress !

Maybe Al Qeada/Bin Laden will go into business. Then what ?
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William, 23 Jul 2006 @ 5:25am

Congress and the casinos
I think the casinos are giving Congress a little Mafia style protection money via scumbag lobbiest like Jack Abramoff to try and shut down online gambaling. Who needs the old brick and mortar casinos when you can gamble at home. So whats the going rate on a senator these days? A two week vacation and 20,000$.
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FenixBrood, 23 Jul 2006 @ 11:23am

Problem
I live in Sweden and here we have a very heavy regulated gambing market, only the goverment are allowed to run gambling opperations. We(I) have notice a increase in gambling addictis due to online gambling when the goverment started a online-gaming site. The problem with the online gambling is that ANYONE can gamble, incuding minors, and there is no way to checking who that person is. I think it is good that the US goverment regulates online gaming.
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Jose Figueredo, 23 Jul 2006 @ 12:07pm

More of the same!!
This is another example of the current's administration
legal abuses, not too long was Guantanamo, now is Internet gambling, who knows what's next, sexual behavior in the privacy of your home???

I will continue to gamble no matter what the local, state, and federal governments think, this is my right....
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Josh, 23 Jul 2006 @ 1:04pm

Personally i could give a dead rat's ass if im unable to gamble online. What i do care about is that the stupid politicians (reps AND dems) actually spent time on this and neglected real problems.
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Gavin, 23 Jul 2006 @ 10:24pm

No gambling in the tubes?
Yeah, like that will ever happen. Poker is just like porn, once it found its way onto the web you'll never get rid of it. Arresting these guys would be pointless and stupid.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2006 @ 4:07am

Gambling
was a good blackjack player in my youth....made decent money.....but stopped when i started to lose....was shown a web site gambling game (free trial) and thought why not....not my money lets try a shot...... anti up $5000 and off i went....fully expected to win since a. i used to good but mainly b. i thought that the site would let me win to try and suck me in! how wrong was i.....lost $5000 in less than 20 mins......concluded that the way the cards were coming out it was a real con, fraudulent....no way could i win...ran a short test with real pack and have to say that whom so ever designed the game I played was either a genius or a computer....my bet in on a .......

so if the suckers out there want to spunk their hard earned money on this crap in the vain hope that they might just win......oh well...
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Wire Cramped, 24 Jul 2006 @ 8:13am

This is a real issue only...
BECAUSE... I am from Vegas originally and I can say without doubt that sales are down at alllll casinos the more the gamblers are getting internet and able to do so online. So the Casinos pay the politicians to go after the "crooks" so they can get their customers back.

If you think it is anything less your foolish. This is an issue that is ran from casino money to politicians the end.
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Pissed off American, 24 Jul 2006 @ 10:57am

F&ck Congress
All members of Congress are corrupt, evil weasels. If gambling is that bad, just outlaw it all together. The only reason they have outlawed online gambling is because they are being bribed by the gambling industry in Los Vegas, Atlantic City, etc. The hypocritical government is even part of the gambling industry -- state lotteries.

All members of Congress who voted for outlawing gambling should be impeached on grounds of
1. Abuse of government power
2. Consipracy to defraud the American public
3. Fraud itself
4. Bribery
5. Human rights violations for arresting innocent people and subjecting them to humilliating and degrading conditions

Of course, the American public is too damn stupid to get upset over this. What's someone else's liberty worth? If you're smart, you realize it's worth whatever your liberty is.

And you heard this from someone who HAS NEVER, EVER gambled in his life -- not even a lotto ticket.
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