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It may not be the end of online gambling

What may seem like the rumbles and tumbles of online gambling is not exactly so, at least not for online gambling players and portals around the globe.

While some thought that World War III was breaking out, others just saw it as ripples in the pond on a stormy night.

The US did pass the Safe Port Act, which intends to limit online gambling, making it all the more difficult for gamers in the US to paddle away at online poker, but it didn’t bring forth the end of the world.


Yet, Lawrence Walters, an attorney who specializes in online gaming laws says the addendum to the Act doesn’t clarify the online gambling situation, but rather brings about an obscurity.

“The version of the legislation that finally passed is an arbitrary, poorly-drafted, vague set of prohibitions that only serve to further complicate the muddled mess that is online gaming regulation in the [U.S.],” Walters said.

“As a result, the remaining provisions of the legislation are contradictory, and attempt to incorporate provisions of existing state or federal law in order to define what activity constitutes unlawful Internet gambling.”

The critics of online gambling prohibition are the banks, which would not only be required to track all financial transactions to ensure that they aren’t related to online gambling, but stop the ones that are as well.

Banks would of course lose out the most because of the transactions related to online gambling. And, although their revenues will continue to be transmitted, it will be a major blow with the US market out.

As Independent Community Bank lobbyist Steve Verdier said, “It's very tempting to think the banking industry can stop this kind of stuff because people pay for it through banks, but the fact is the system just wasn't really designed to do it.”

The US government is expected to require financial institutions to watch transactions closely, but there won’t be sanctions for non-compliance, provided that you're not in cahoots with an online gambling company of course.

Although the legislation limits payment options for poker players engaged in online gambling, it surprisingly doesn’t explicitly prohibit players from playing online poker.
Even politicians are voicing their concerns of this online gambling ban. In an interview with Gambling911, Congressperson Shelley Berkley (R-NV.) said that the legislation is flawed.

“This legislation has a loophole big enough to drive a truck through that was designed solely to protect betting on horse racing and lotteries over the Internet,” she said.

Online gambling is all about the game especially when it comes to online poker. The ambiguity of poker’s actual status could benefit fans of Texas Hold ‘em. Some would have you believe it is online gambling no questions asked, but real poker players would take issue with that.

In fact, Phil Gordon made similar arguments about online gambling when testifying for poker back in 2005. If poker is seen by letter of the law as a skill online gambling game, then paying would not be deemed illegal.

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