Online Gambling on the Way

The US Department of Justice ruled in September, . . . in contradiction of all prior rulings, . . . that Wire Act prohibitions against online gambling apply only to sport-related gambling activities in interstate and foreign commerce.
The ruling was announced right before Christmas by Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz in a memorandum published on December 23.

Gambling Attorney Mr. I. Nelson Rose concludes that "the only federal anti-gambling statutes left . . . are the federal laws designed to go after organized crime. These all require that there first be a violation of another law, like the Wire Act, the federal anti-lottery statutes, or a state anti-gambling law. If a state has expressly legalized intra-state games like poker, as Nevada and the District of Columbia have done, there is simply no federal law that could apply."

Mr. Rose and DonDiego agree that now "Internet gambling explodes across the nation, made legal under state laws."

Ref: A Present from the DOJ - I.Nelson Rose

On a personal note, . . . the only online gambling in which poor old DonDiego might have an interest is sports betting, specifically the NFL. This will be the only form of gambling still prohibited online.

DonDiego I am with you on this one. To me a large part of the fun of gambling is the whole casino experience. I reserve 99% of my gambling to when I am on vacation.

I can see a lot of people heading for trouble if and when this takes affect.

Hey, we live in America and we are one of the few people not allowed online gambling. I'm sure there will be people that abuse it, however the odds will be better than what they get by gambling with the State governments in the form of Lotteries. I'm looking forward to online poker and the boom. I think there will be easy money to be made during the first year or so.

Poor old mrmarcus12LVA opines that we are just as likely to see a rush by the other States to PROHIBIT it, as we are to see a boom. So far, there's been only 1 application in Nevada for a poker website - from Southpoint.

DonDiego suggests there is no need for any State to "prohibit" it; they just needn't allow it. But mrmarcus12LVA is probably right; some States will prohibit it, . . . at least until they see how lucrative it is.

But some States will embrace the "opportunity" to expand their "revenue base" (i.e. "tax base"). The basis for the decision, . . . these things don't just drop out of the blue sky, . . . was a ruling on permitting several States to expand the State-lottery to allow internet purchase of lottery tickets. Those States aren't gonna prohibit it. But the ruling did not limit itself to this narrow question; it essentially opened the internet to any gaming which the individual States choose to allow, . . . and, as initial legal interpretations suggest, to Inter-State gambling to which multiple States agree.

And the markets have already spoken:
__Shares of some Gibralter-based companies that provided internet poker in the USA before the 2006 ban soared as much as 30% following the announcement.
__According to Gambling Compliance, . . . California, Hawaii, Iowa, Florida and New Jersey are likely to consider Internet Poker legislation in 2012.
__H2 Gambling Capital estimates worldwide eGaming will hit $30 billion next year.
__On 27 December, the first trading day after the public announcement this is what top US gaming stocks did:
BYD +68 cents (9.78%) $7.63
IGT +82 cents (4.95%) $17.37
MGM +46 cents (4.62%) $10.42
WYNN + $3.53 (3.21%) $113.53
SHFL +20 cents (1.70%) $11.99
BYI +61 cents (1.57%) $39.49
LVS +45 cents (1.03%) $43.99
Source: New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq

Ref: Las Vegas Review-Journal

Don't know there boss as I would only be using it for NLHE on Stars or a simular website.