Internet Gambling, Online Gambling :: Journalistic Essays

Online Gambling There is a major(ip) issue to be dealt with, which is spreading with little regulatory oversight and no effective screens against participation by the young and the vulnerable. Internet gambling represents ane of the fastest growing segments of online activity with much than seven hundred network sites now providing users the opportunity to wager everything from casino games to sporting events. According to net research firms, the industry will pull in $1.5 one one million million million million in world-wide revenues this year. That figure is expected to hit at least $6 billion by 2006. Also, a survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project concluded that $4.5 million Americans feel gambled online and that 1 million gamble online everyday. There be many different issues dealing with the legalisation of online gambling. The current law dealing with online gambling is the Wire Transfer transaction of 1961. Under this regulation, the law is v iolated when telephone lines are used in interstate or foreign commerce to place wagers. The statute in any case bars the transmission of information that assists betters to gamble on sports events and contests. Recently, Congress have been active in seeking to pass further legislation to jump betting on the web. Last November, the Senate proposed the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. This statute would give away it a crime to knowingly use the internet or other interactive computer services to place, receive, or otherwise make a bet or wager or send, receive, or charm information assisting in the placing of a bet or wager. Penalties would be as high as $20,000 and 4 years in prison. However, in a vote in July, the bill narrowly missed obtaining the two thirds bulk required to pass the bill. In May, the Unlawful Internet Gambling funding Prohibition Act was introduced. This statute would criminalize and prohibit any psyche engaged in a gambling business from knowingly evalua te from another person who is involved in internet gambling a credit card or extension of credits, an electronic transfer of funds, or any instrument payable through a financial institution. This would protect certain financial institutions from liability as long as they do not know that their facilities are being used for online gambling. This bill has also not yet been passed. Either of these Acts would greatly help the problems of online gambling. There are a number of reasons why this booming industry should provoke more concern among policy makers.