The (il)Legality of Online Gambling

The absurdity of U.S. laws prohibiting its citizens from gambling online via off-shore casinos is a favorite topic of the Wicked Chops Poker crew, so much so we've even thought about hiring a law student to write an authoritative legal paper on the issue, in order to flush out all the issues. Well, no need anymore because, as first seen by us over at the Las Vegas and Poker blog, a law student at the Univ. of Toronto has posted a comprehensive report addressing the legality of Internet gambling in the U.S. This is an intriguing and thorough analysis of the legal issues at play and is very much worth the read for any American online player.

Issued covered in the report include:

• the history and state of Internet gambling in America today, including the prosecutorial powers available to both the United States federal and state governments;
• the government’s ability to enforce its laws upon casino operators in foreign jurisdictions;
• a profile of the case against Jay Cohen, former CEO of the World Sports Exchange (WSE) and the only U.S. citizen to be successfully prosecuted for operating an Internet gambling site in a foreign jurisdiction;
• a look at the two techniques (credit card restrictions and online advertising restrictions) the government uses to discourage Internet gambling; and
• a review of the current dispute before the WTO, in which Antigua and Barbuda have argued that “in legislating transactions between US financial institutions and Antigua and Barbuda-based Internet gaming companies, (the United States government) was acting in breach of its obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).”

So get reading . . . learn about the laws on Internet gambling and at same time, prove Val Kilmer wrong