Why Should Banks Be Responsible For Stopping Internet Gambling?

from the always-looking-for-the-easy-way-out dept

As the federal government continues its quixotic quest to stamp out online gambling for no clear reason (other than, you know, to protect our ports), it's now putting the responsibility on banks to block online gambling. Why banks? That's not entirely clear, but banks may now be responsible for making sure that individuals can't transfer money to various online gambling operations. All this for an activity that doesn't appear to create any additional problem gamblers. There are those who say it's all because the federal government wants to tax online casinos, but that doesn't ring true either -- since they're shutting them down rather than taxing them. Many online casinos would love to be taxed if they could legally do business in the US. Instead, it seems to just be that some politicians claim not to like online gambling for moral reasons -- though they were careful to carve out exceptions for wholesome online gambling like horse races and state lotteries.

Filed Under: banks, online gambling

Would A $100 Billion Fine Get The US To Pay Attention To Antigua's WTO Win?

from the your-attention-please... dept

We've covered the long and detailed saga of Antigua fighting the US via the WTO, but the short summary is this: Antigua claims that the US is violating a free trade agreement in banning online gambling (many online gambling firms are in Antigua). The WTO agreed with Antigua and the US proceeded to ignore the ruling. The WTO again sided with Antigua... and the US pretended the WTO had sided with the US... and again ignored the ruling. This has happened a few more times, with the US eventually unilaterally changing the terms of the free trade agreement -- which didn't satisfy either the WTO or Antigua. Of course, with Antigua being such a small country there has been little in the way of ramifications for the US for ignoring the ruling. That's why Antigua is now pushing for the right to ignore US copyrights and patents as a remedy. However, there may be an even more persuasive remedy. Back over the summer, the EU indicated that it might start siding with Antigua in the dispute -- and it's a lot more difficult for the US to simply ignore the EU. To make the situation even more fun, the latest news is that gambling firms in the EU are pushing for $100 billion in damages from the US. That's certainly an unlikely number, but it's going to get plenty of attention either way. If the EU (and Japan, apparently) really do take Antigua's side in this, the US may finally be forced to acknowledge that it lost. However, it still seems quite unlikely that it will stop the ban on online gambling any time soon.

Filed Under: antigua, online gambling, wto

Anti-Online Gambling Law Challenged In Court

from the but-we-need-to-protect-our-ports dept

A year ago, as part of a larger bill that was supposed to be about "protecting our ports," Congress banned online gambling. While there's some back and forth over the law (and some politicians seem interested in changing the law), representatives of the gambling industry have gone to court to get the law declared unconstitutional, violating an individual's right to gamble in the privacy of their own home. The judge said that she expects to rule within 30 days, so it should be a relatively quick turnaround -- though, it's almost inevitable that a series of appeals will follow no matter what the outcome. So don't expect any final outcome on this question for a few years. The Justice Department, of course, has no problem with the law and is asking for the case to be dismissed, even if they haven't even bothered to enforce the law (yet).

Filed Under: constitutional, online gambling

No Evidence That Online Gambling Creates More Problem Gamblers

from the finally,-we-can't-blame-the-interent-on-something dept

While the US continues its attempts to wipe out all forms of online gambling (other than those forms of gambling that politicians partake in, such as horse racing and lotteries), a new study is suggesting that, contrary to politician grandstanding, online gambling does not lead to more problem gamblers. The study takes place in the UK, where they measured the different types of gambling that people engage in and determined the number of problem gamblers out there. What they found is that, even though it's a lot easier to gamble these days, the number of problem gamblers seems to have remained mostly constant (representing less than 1% of all gamblers). This shouldn't really be all that surprising. Problem gamblers are problem gamblers whether or not they have internet access to gambling sites. Either way, this should raise some questions about the idea that preventing online gambling somehow protects gambling addicts.

Filed Under: online gambling

Antigua Seriously Pushing For WTO Approval To Distribute Free Music And Movies

from the well,-look-at-that... dept

Since 2003, we've been following the saga of Antigua's fight against the US in the World Trade Organization. Basically, Antigua argued that the US's ban on online gambling violated the free trade agreement the two countries had signed -- as it blocked online gambling sites based in Antigua (of which there are a bunch). Since then, the case has been fun to watch if only for how the US has responded to it. The WTO ruled in favor of Antigua at which point the US basically ignored the WTO, despite the WTO occasionally making angry noises. Then, there was the time that the US went so far as to declare that the WTO had reversed that original ruling on appeal... but the details showed that the US was making up that claim and the WTO was still supporting Antigua. Earlier this year, after the WTO started stomping its feet again, the US responded by saying it was simply (unilaterally) going to change its free trade agreement with Antigua, so that online gambling wasn't included. Obviously, Antigua finds that solution quite troublesome.

Back in early 2006, however, a few people began buzzing about an idea that Antigua could use to force the US to pay attention: become an WTO-backed ignorer of US copyright law. Since the US knew it could effectively ignore Antigua over online gambling, the idea was that Antigua should simply say that if the US won't support its free trade agreement, then it would start ignoring US copyright laws, and would then (with WTO-backing, mind you) allow modern versions of all sorts of copyright-violating services to prosper. We didn't think that Antigua would seriously go in this direction, but as a new NY Times article makes clear it's exactly what Antigua is now pushing for. Of course, the real hope is that in doing so, the Big Copyright players will force the US government to back down on the gambling issue. However, it might be a lot more interesting to see what would happen if Antigua really did become the protected legal home of more modern versions of (the old) Napster, my.mp3.com, the Pirate Bay, Allofmp3.com and others. Of course, as reader OKVol points out to us, the real irony here is that in potentially ignoring copyright monopolies, Antigua may be getting closer to real free trade than in living up to the terms of the free trade agreement between the two countries.

Filed Under: antigua, copyrights, free trade, gambling, online gambling, world trade
Companies: wto