Online Gambling - Life Goes On

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By Wild Bill

In passing the legislation: "Safe Ports Act" all internet gamblers are now wondering for how much longer they will be able to play their favorite games online. Even worse they are left to wonder if they are lucky, will they get paid? How many have looked closely at the issue and realized there might be even more gambling available online soon?

Never has the underhanded political process been more exposed to gamblers. For years Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona has tried to sneak in legislation to restrict or ban online gambling through such methods as attaching an amendment to unrelated legislation. This year's process showed all Kyl lacked was Senate leadership.

Gamblers should take a step back and understand how they will likely be affected by this legislation. Key sites such as Party Poker do appear to be out of the game for the time being, but worrying about the closure of a few specific sites is short-sighted. After all this is an industry reportedly doing $12 billion a year in revenues. There will be plenty of participants still operating and any unserved segments created by the departures of some will be filled by new gambling sites.

What this amounts to is nothing more than a hassle for players. Much like one wouldn't stop driving on a freeway because they heard of a lane closure, few are going to stop getting on the information superhighway to play the games of their choice. It just might be a little bumpy and unclear for awhile. Once the virtual “construction” is completed we will all look back on this and wonder what the big fuss was.

For once again Congress has run into its limitations and done about as much as they can. Federal lawmakers don't have the ability nor the stomach for truly banning internet gambling, perhaps because it presents so little an issue to the overall public. In an election year it is easier to pass a bill light on substance, but then misrepresent what it means for votes. However even if banking regulators have success in enforcing these demands, the industry has enough creative people to get around any restrictions.

When legal experts get done reviewing this, the realization might come that more gambling than ever has now been legalized for the internet. Meanwhile the gambling which was supposed to be banned will continue to thrive as players ignore Congress' wishes. This bill is believed to give the go ahead to states to allow online gambling of almost every form except sports betting as long as they prevent people in other states from playing.

History suggests this could lead to an explosion of new gambling options. In 1987 Congress passed IGRA to allow tribes to have bingo halls. Fast forward 20 years and you might wonder where did all these tribal bingo halls go? Congress in their haste to control something they had no business watching over created the country's largest gambling industry. It's possible 20 years from now this latest piece of ill-conceived legislation could once again yield another huge new form of gambling.

In any case just by maintaining similar vigilance as before players should be fine. Don't leave money you can't afford to lose in offshore accounts including Neteller. A banking emergency could put you in trouble quickly and you don't want to lose sleep over this. Otherwise it won't be long until players and operators will be saying things are back to business as usual. Who knows there might even be more options for online gambling. Wouldn't that be ironic?

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