The End

Well, it appears to have happened. Late night on Friday, September 29, the U.S. Government passed a bill making it illegal for U.S.citizens to gamble on the Internet. Well, actually the bill focused on the methods by which online accounts are funded, but the net effect of the bill is to ban online gambling. The bill has not been signed into law by the President yet, but there is no reason to think that he will not, as the bill was attached to a port security bill that has very little chance of being vetoed. This pretty much sounds the death-knell for the online gambling industry, estimated at 6 billion dollars per year in the U.S.

In theory, there is a gap of time (270 days) during which the banks and other financial providers have to become compliant with the law. In actuality, the casinos (especially the publicly traded ones) have jumped this gun and started banning U.S. players outright. And the ones that have started the banning are not the small-fry casinos either - among those that have banned (that I know of as of 7:00 Monday morning!) are Partygaming, 888.com, William Hill, and Intercasino. I have not kept up on the news, as I am disconnected from the network as I write this, but would not be surprised to see that all of my casino / poker options have been closed to me by the time I get home today. I think my only possible action is to try to play out the end of my Party bonus ($100, 5x, and I'm about 30% through it) before the President's pen actually signs it into law.

There is some speculation that the reasoning behind this bill is to "prove" that you cannot ban something as large as this - that it will fail much like Prohibition in the 1920s, and once it has deemed to have failed, to regulate and tax it. I think this is VERY optimistic thinking - I personally do think that the ban will fail much like prohibition, but don't know that the situation will shake out in exactly that way. Regardless, it would take many years to get to that point.

The reasoning for the bill is to protect us from the evils of gambling. Senator Bill Frist had this to say

"Gambling is a serious addiction that undermines the family, dashes dreams and frays the fabric of society," Dr Frist said. "The bottom line is simple: internet gambling is illegal. Although we can't monitor every online gambler or regulate offshore gambling, we can police the financial institutions that disregard our laws."

This is, to be quite frank, pure bullshit. If that were the case, there would not be exceptions in the bill for online betting on horses, lotteries, and fantasy football. The bill is pure hypocrisy - a combination of election year politics and the inability to tax the stream of money that is produced.

If you haven't guessed, I am highly offended that the government can control what I do with my own disposable income and in my own free time.

Land of the free indeed.

I will likely see what the damage is over this next week, tidy up for a last bankroll update, and check out. I hate to complain, as I am over $4,000 richer than whan I started, but am totally disgusted at my government right now.