Judges Rejects Gambling Group's Attempt To Toss Out Anti-Online Gambling Law

from the keep-trying dept

Thu, Mar 6th 2008 8:38pm — Mike Masnick

A group calling itself the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association has failed in its attempt to get a judge to throw out Congress' law designed to ban online gambling. While the judge did note that the group has standing to bring this suit (which was an open question), she did not find their case compelling at all. She basically said that Congress passed the law legally and it wasn't a violation of the Constitution. The group is planning to appeal, but it still seems like a more likely path towards getting such a law overturned is to convince Congress that it made a mistake.

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Filed Under: congress, constitution, legality, online gambling

13 Comments

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Jake, 6 Mar 2008 @ 10:16pm

I'm not sure it IS a mistake, personally; something tells me that the kind of person who prefers to play poker over the Internet instead of face-to-face is either not very good at it or out to make some poor sucker lose his shirt, and good luck proving that an electronic croupier (is that the correct term?) is using loaded dice.
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DanC, 6 Mar 2008 @ 11:04pm

Arguing the morality of online gambling is pointless; if you're going to do it, you know the risks.

That being said, the current law should be thrown out, as it is a direct violation of international trade law. In trying to defend the ban at the time, a Republican stated that "It cannot be allowed to stand that another nation can impose its values on the U.S. and make it a trade issue." Of course, this is occurring at the same time the U.S. is trying to force its copyright and patent terms down the throats of any developing country looking for entry into the WTO. It's hypocritical, plain and simple.
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AJ, 7 Mar 2008 @ 3:56am

I agree
I think its about control and money. In vegas there is a commision, regulations, taxes.. a fairly large amount of people with their hands in the pot. Government is buisness just like any other buisness in my opinion. If they can't control it, and make money from it, then it must be bad..
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ReallyEvilCanine, 7 Mar 2008 @ 4:04am

Send the judge back to school
She basically said that Congress passed the law legally and it wasn't a violation of the Constitution.
Article VI: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
It's a violation of GATS (to which the US is a signatory) which is why the WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda $3.4 billion last October. It's also why Antigua is now allowed ignore all US copyrights.
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BoxFiesta, 7 Mar 2008 @ 4:44am

Justice
Justice is blind.

The government can't make money from something so they make it illegal.

The US is either for or against gambling. They can't ban gambling online overseas but allow it in other forms.

Jake what on earth are you on about? "I'm not sure it IS a mistake, personally; something tells me that the kind of person who prefers to play poker over the Internet instead of face-to-face is either not very good at it or out to make some poor sucker lose his shirt,"

Jake did you approve this law? Haha.
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Haywood, 7 Mar 2008 @ 5:06am

Re: Justice
I tend to agree with Jake on this one. I've never played an online game that didn't have some sort trainer or cheat to tilt the playing field a bit. Hard to imagine this would be all that different.
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Jason Still, 7 Mar 2008 @ 5:30am

Re: Re: Justice
I tend to agree with Jake on this one. I've never played an online game that didn't have some sort trainer or cheat to tilt the playing field a bit. Hard to imagine this would be all that different.

These aren't FPS or RTS games we're talking about here, where latency matters and some important things have to be done client-side. Any gambling game could be done completely server-side, with the client doing nothing more than displaying the results, and thus negating the possibility of any sort of client-side trainer/cheat/hack.
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ReallyEvilCanine, 7 Mar 2008 @ 5:38am

Re: Re: Re: Justice
Jason's correct. Casinos could very easily implement remote session systems (think VNC/Terminal Server/Citrix/pcAnywhere) so that everything is running on the host's server and only graphics, keystrokes and mouse movement information is being transmitted. The client-side apps are more a matter of convenience and speed consideration for those without high-speed connections, but there's no casino game dependent on lag-free connectivity.
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Fish, 7 Mar 2008 @ 8:11am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Justice
But remember humans are placed in control of those machines and become disgruntled and are also suseptable to making programming/configuration errors, greed, coercian etc... To say cheating cant happen is purley an ignorant view of the capabilities of todays cyber criminals. In the event online gaming laws change there will be, without a doubt, scams of some sort involved. Should the challenge be presented there are those willing and able to take it on.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2008 @ 8:48am

I can cheat at online poker. It really isn't that difficult. It can give a player an advantage. That isn't the point.

The point is that our govt. has not allowed Internet gambling other countries believe that gambling is gambling and it is wrong for us to not allow it.

Personally I don't think we should allow foreign countries to dictate what we allow. Is govt. paid healthcare a advantage to foreign companies? Of course, should there be a penalty to those companies?
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dirtycolaboy, 7 Apr 2008 @ 6:49pm

online gambling
i think there mad because they cant make any money off of it...........think about it if they cant control it it illegal....
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