Fergie's Tech Blog

House Panel Approves Bill to Ban Online Gambling

A $12 billion industry? Bah. Like some piddly law will slow Internet gambling down at all. The U.S. federal government is so out of touch. The best they can hope for, in reality, is to find some way to tax it.

And besides -- U.S. laws don't apply to offshore gambling sites, and there is little technological reason to believe that U.S. legislation will actually have any noticable effect on the amount of online gambling at all.

A Reuters newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

A House of Representatives subcommittee on Wednesday approved a bill that would ban Internet gambling, estimated to be a $12 billion industry.

The legislation would update and expand an existing federal law to cover all forms of interstate gambling within the United States, and would bar a gambling business from accepting payment in the form of credit cards, checks, wire and Internet transfers. It would also prohibit gambling on an estimated 2,300 Internet gambling sites.

Shares of some British-based gaming companies fell on news that the bill had progressed another step. PartyGaming Plc and 888 Holdings tumbled about 5 percent each on the London Stock Exchange.

The bill was approved on a voice vote by the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime. It will go to the full committee for consideration.

posted by Fergie @ 5/03/2006 10:03:00 PM