USA wants online gambling ban, but individuals love casinos

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USA wants online gambling ban, but individuals love online casinos
http://www.ogpaper.com/news/news-0157.html

The federal government appears to agree with online casinos haters and is doing all it can to curb the spread of online casinos, which is estimated to be a $12 billion-a-year business.

Last month, it arrested the CEO of a top online casinos firm, one of the most popular online casinos, when he changed planes in Dallas, as part of its aggressive crackdown on online casinos.

Also, the House of Representatives recently passed a tough anti online casinos law, further regulating payment systems as well as punishing people who facilitate online casinos, such as other sites that accept advertising from offshore online casinos.
But while the federal government tries to clamp down on online casinos, do those who actually make bets at online caisnos have to worry about running afoul of the law? Not likely.

In the weird world of online casinos, betting at online casinos is legal, except in states with explicit bans such as Washington, which outlaws all online casinos, or Nevada, which disallows betting on horses via online casinos.
But while betting at internet casino sites is often not against the law, accepting the wager most decidedly is. The rub in terms of enforcing the law is that all the offshore casino sites are located outside U.S. borders, in such countries as Costa Rica and Antigua.
“There is no way you can put a curtain around the U.S. and stop the Internet,” said Frank Catania, a consultant to the gambling industry and the former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Still, the government is trying.
The 1,800 or so gambling sites and their operators are, for the most part, out of reach of the U.S. government.
Some are so well-established that they trade on the London Stock Exchange. In fact, the United Kingdom is gearing up to legalize net gambling sites, further complicating this country's attempt to limit their reach, Catania said.
The current jurisdictional labyrinth has helped the market for online gambling in the United States to flourish.
Americans account for $6 billion of the online gambling industry's estimated annual revenue of $12 billion. By way of comparison, all other forms of gambling in the United States had revenue of almost $79 billion in 2004.

Internet gambling among U.S. citizens is growing at a rate of 20 percent a year, according to a study by the American Gaming Association, the trade organization of commercial casinos.
One the most successful gambling firms, said 84 percent of its nearly $1 billion revenue in 2005 came from U.S. residents.
Pacific Beach resident Ryan Lord said the allure of online gambling is hard to ignore – it's easy money.

Lord, 32, has played in online poker tournaments since Christmas and said he is doing so well that he may quit his job and try to make a living gambling. Recently, he's been cashing out for about $300 a day.
“It's not huge money, but it's tax-free,” he said.