Yesterday the U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee on crime voted to update the Wire Act of 1961, which bans interstate wagers, to apply to Internet gambling sites as well. The bill passed unanimously.
The updated bill would allow U.S. law enforcement agents to shut down sites found in violation, or stop credit-card payments to sites operating outside of the country. For example, law enforcement agents could instruct U.S. Internet service providers to take down links to gambling sites, or they could require online advertising firms to stop distributing ads for illegal online casinos.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who sponsored the bill, said this about the bill in a Reuters news article: “This legislation is badly needed because there are a great many offshore sites that are sucking billions of dollars from American households.”
The bill now moves to the full Judiciary Committee for consideration.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that the American Gaming Association (AGA) now opposes the Goodlatte bill. “We’re still opposed [to Internet gambling], but it doesn’t mean we’ll put our [approval] on any bill that opposes Internet gambling,” said AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf.
The AGA is considering whether to support an Togel Hongkong alternate bill that specifically bans the use of credit cards, checks or electronic transfers for the purpose of “unlawful Internet gambling.”
WINNERonline.com will continue to follow this story and bring you updates as they happen.
How It Should Be: The Power to Remake Internet Gambling
The Almighty has decided that He needs someone to clean up the Internet gambling scene and He’s appointed me! How would things look if, for one week, Max had carte blanc to remake Internet gambling?
The First Day: Let’s bring some light to bear on this good guys, bad guys issue right off the top. It’s Regulation time! In order to level the playing field and make sure that there is some hard and fast accountability Internet casinos must now be licensed by recognized national regulatory boards — Isle of Man, etc. No exceptions! If a casino isn’t licensed and regulated then it’s basically a pirate casino and the player is on their own.
Universal regulation would be good for the players ’cause now they know who they can trust and they have the law to fall back on if they get screwed over. It’s good for the casinos because the regulatory process legitimizes them. Complaints from the casino operators about fees, etc? Forgettaboutit! We all know that properly run casinos make pots of money and the licensing, taxes, etc that the casinos have to bear are not going to significantly impact that. And of course it’s good for the regulatory jurisdictions because casinos pay taxes and licensing fees. Nuff said!
The Second Day: On this day I open the firmament and bring high speed Web access for all! The Internet can be a beautiful thing but at 56k it’ll take you a long time to see that. You may grow old in the process, very old.
56k is to the Internet what Tomb Raider is to a good sex life: it may seem good enough at the time but once you’ve left it behind you’ll know just how not good it really was!
The Third Day: Let’s get down to Earth: it’s time for audited, published slot machine payouts, like in Vegas. After all, when a Vegas casino like Harrah’s says their slot machine is 98% payback, that means something, no? And since we’ve got universal regulation it shouldn’t be a big deal to get this. Bravo! Things are starting to come together.
The Fourth Day: And now for a twinkle in every players eye, decent Customer Support! Friendly, prompt support, even on Payout days. After all, the casinos should be glad when the player wins and should be the first to offer congratulations. It’s a good thing for everyone! No more of this trying to make the player feel like a thief because they got lucky and won. Happiness, in. Stalling, excuses and bad attitudes, out!
The Fifth Day: These days it seems that casino software is replicating like the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea. Who needs 300 casinos running the same software, aside for the software licenser of course. Well, no more! A few casinos per vendor is plenty thanks.
And while we’re at it, what’s with forced software updates? When a player fires up their casino to play they do not want to sit there for 10 minutes waiting for an update that fails half the time anyway. No siree! Optional updates please and thank you. Even then the player should be able to decide when it happens.
On the other hand if the software people could set things so that it happens transparently to the player and rolls back in case the update fails that might be okay too. Hmmm, I don’t recommend anyone hold their breath over this just yet.
The Sixth Day: Spam is a nasty beast and no player should have to worry about getting deluged with rubbish just because they’ve signed up to play at a casino. “No Spam, Thanks” options should be mandatory and enforceable. Since casinos are all regulated it should probably be a licence requirement that player’s email remain private. Good idea!
On The Seventh Day the Big Guy rested. Shall we rest? No way! Max has made everything beautiful again! Let’s play!
