Internet Gambling

Yesterday, 2 ex NeTeller executives were arrested and charged with money laundering, in connection with transferring funds to gambling sites for American customers. They're not Americans, the COMPANY isn't an American business, but they were arrested and charged nevertheless.

Bill Frisk, an ex politician, had been trying for some time to get a law passed to go after internet gambling. (Internet porn, however, flies under his radar) His attempts were repeatedly rejected, and so he put it in as a last minute addition to a Port Security Act, which meant the politicians had to accept it, as voting against the PSA would have been career suicide.

Altho he later lost his re election bid, the damage is done. Altho at this point it is not illegal for Americans to gamble over the internet, the new laws prohibit banks, etc from processing these transactions. Essentially, they are attempting to make it impossible for us to get money to and from the sites. This is doomed to failure, as there are person to person transfers, and so eventually, a law will be passed criminalizing internet gambling, and also I look for the US Government to put pressure on Internet providers to deny US customers access to gambling sites.

Let me be clear. This was a despicable, underhanded and deceptive tactic to enforce a law that is unjust and an unfair attempt to limit personal freedom and invade personal privacy. (Yes, an invasion of privacy. How are they going to know I'm playing poker online unless they access my internet records? So, if you have sites you'd be embarrassed to have people know you visited, this law affects you too.) I'm 37 years old and the government is telling me I can't play poker, unless I do it at a casino, or a friends home, or a table in the park, or basically anywhere but a computer. The illogic of it would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating.

The Poker Players Alliance http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org is committed to preventing this, asserting the unfairness of the law, it's unpopularity (polls show 75 % of Americans disagree with the law) and also that poker is a game of skill, not gambling. I don't look for them to have much success, tho. If the Government is willing to dismiss the opinion of 75 percent of Americans, then they won't listen to the PPA either.