 Ebay invites
internet regulation against online casinos and others
Due to recent attempts by United States’
politicians aiming to curb the online casinos industry, shares
of online casinos are entering a dangerous period on various
stock markets.
The bill against online casinos is designed to hit online
casinos in the pocket, to “cut the money flow from gamblers to
internet sites by prohibiting the use of credit cards, checks
and fund transfers to be used to settle wagers.”
All of the major online casinos are based in offshore tax
nations where they are able to offer online casinos and online
sports betting sites over the internet to American Internet
users.
Under the Wire Act, the United States Justice Department
considers online casinos to be illegal. The act also does not
allow wagers on “sporting events,” which online casinos allow.
Nevertheless, the act has failed to strictly enforce the
regulation of online casinos. The threat to online casinos still
looms however, but some online casinos executives are taking it
in stride.
In a recent development, however, the global internet giant Ebay
has invited regulation of online casinos and is backing the
online casinos ban.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte is in the process of pushing through Congress
a bill that would "ban" Internet gambling.
Online auction firm EBay has thrown its support behind
Goodlatte's efforts. Why would an Internet company open its arms
to congressional regulation of the Internet, some have asked?
Some believe that eBay is attempting to win favor with Goodlatte,
who also happens to sit on the Congressional Internet Caucus.
There's probably some truth to that. But there's another, more
likely explanation for eBay selling out the e-commerce world:
Good, old-fashioned protectionism.
First, a brief history lesson from the article:
eBay owns PayPal, the popular, online payment system favored by
millions of auction sites, membership-based, sites, and bloggers.
This wasn't always the case. PayPal was actually founded in the
late 1990s by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, two
libertarian-minded Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with a
revolutionary vision. Thiel and Levchin saw the potential for
PayPal to grow into a kind of private currency.
The young start-up never materialized. In the end, complying
with the regulators, appeasing the politicians and fighting off
the civil and criminal litigation was too much to bear. Thiel
and Levchin abandoned their vision, and sold PayPal to eBay, a
company with an established Internet presence, an experienced
legal team on staff, and -- to the detriment of PayPal's loyal
customers -- a conciliatory corporate culture.
One of the first things eBay did after acquiring PayPal was to
announce an even more restrictive policy, forbidding customers
from using PayPal for adult-oriented products and services, as
well as "non-adult services whose Web site marketing can be
reasonably misconstrued as allowing adult material or services
to be purchased using PayPal," a move that coincided with the
Bush administration's war on Internet pornography.
So, it seems as if Ebay is looking to protect its own interests,
which go against online casinos.
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