Tuesday 25 September 2012

Online Sports Betting - Is It Legal?

By George Smith


At present, online sport gambling is now a fascination for many, with more and more people indulging in this type of online gambling than in other traditional gambling games. Gambling is now a worldwide phenomenon with most countries establishing laws to legalize and regulate it. The image is always going to be a little cloudy because of the disagreement regarding what law actually states until the online cleared up. The legality of Internet sports betting can appear to be a complicated problem for residents of the United States and for good reason. To better comprehend the legality question, it's best to have a look at some history of anti-gambling legislation. Even more, for a number of years the United States argued against the lawfulness of Internet sports gambling by citing the Interstate Wire Act, which was passed to ban sports betting between states by using the telephone or other wire-containing devices.

Nevertheless, for several years the United States debated against the lawfulness of Internet betting by citing the Interstate Wire Act, which was passed to ban sports gambling between states by using the phone or other wire-containing devices. Even more, the Internet had yet to be invented, several legal experts inquired if the law referred to the Internet or not .Furthermore, the other questions that came from the Wire Act were if it related to all forms of gambling or just wagering on sporting events. In 2002, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals preserved a ruling in Louisiana that dismissed a lawsuit brought by two Internet gamblers against credit card companies after running up debts by placing bets on casino games. In the dismissal, the court ruled the Wire Act was only pertinent to sporting events.

On the contrary, the United States Justice Department saw things differently however, and claimed the Wire Act related to all forms of Internet gambling. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana agreed. In dismissing a 2004 case against the Justice Department brought by the operators of Casino City, a website that serves as a portal to gambling sites. The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals preserved the dismissal.

Likewise, just before taking recess in 2006, Congress passed the SAFE Port Act, which was written to increase security of U.S. Port, but attached to the SAFE Port Act was the Unlawful Internet betting Enforcement Act, which prohibits Americans from using credit cards, electronic funds transfers, or checks to finance Internet betting activity. It's essential to note, the act deals only with how Internet gambling accounts are funded, not the actual betting. The bill is centered on restricting certain financial transactions, requiring that banks identify and block transactions going through their servers and their systems, and requiring that the actual sites, the Internet betting sites, stop and block these transactions. In contrast, on December 21, 2007, the WTO (World Trade Organization) awarded Antigua and Barbuda $21 million in trade sanctions, which will allow the country of 80,000 the right to penalize U. S. trademark and copyright legislation. The United States admitted that its stand on Internet gambling was in violation of the WTO, but claimed Antigua should get less than $1 million. Further complicating things, at least as far as the WTO was concerned, was that the U.S. allows Internet betting on horse racing within the country, and Antigua's trade sanctions will be allowed to go on until the U.S. allows Americans to bet with foreign gaming operators, or rules out off-track wagering on the Internet.

In conclusion, the U.S. has also made some minor trade concessions to some countries, as well as the European Union, to exclude gambling services from a previously signed agreement in 1994 by revising the original agreement. At present, with major efforts to offer convenient services and features that offer excellent gaming experiences, people are responding positively.




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