Internet Gambling Follow Up

Last weeks article on the poker playing BOT produced a lot of email. Many of the questions had to do with the legalities of gambling on the Internet. First, I’m not a lawyer by any means, but I did do a little research into the current state of Internet gambling laws.

Rather than give you my interpretation of the law, I thought I’d provide you with a website where you can look up current legislation (Indiana) and draw your own conclusions.

As far as I can determine, people have been playing online casino games, horse racing, and lotteries since the mid 1990s. A government study done in late 2003 stated, “There are approximately 1,800 e-gaming Websites in existence with revenues of over 5 billion dollars.” According to the report, Internet gambling is essentially a borderless activity that poses regulatory and enforcement challenges. I can believe that. With over 50 countries having already legalized Internet gambling, and more doing so every day, I would guess that it’s going to be very hard to put the cat back in the bag.

Even so, there are at least five states (Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, and Louisiana) that have enacted laws to curtail Internet gambling. In the last few months, Indiana has been added to that list. But I wonder if this law is being enforced? Here is web address where you can read about the new law that went into effect on July 1, 2005.

www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Indiana/internet-bill.htm.

It basically states- citizens of the state of Indiana will be breaking the law if they engage in any form of Internet gambling. I personally know several people who have U-Bet accounts where they can gamble on horse racing at tracks located around the world. I also know of others who have received letters from TVG saying that their accounts were suspended and their money was being returned because of the new law. Funny that one company would be able to continue with business-as-usual, while another would be shut down. I wonder if TVG closed the Indiana accounts to be in compliance with the law or if they were forced to do so by some state agency…and if so, why them and not U-Bet?

I’ve also seen dozens of computers with Party Poker, Casino Royal, Golden Palace, and various other online casino icons on the desktop. These online casinos offer virtually every game that you’d normally find in Vegas. Slots, Poker, Texas Holdem, and Black Jack, just to name a few. Many provide sports betting as well. This type of Internet Gambling is also specifically outlawed in the statutes just passed in Indiana. But again, there doesn’t seem to be any enforcement of the laws. At least none that I’m aware of so far.

So much for Internet gambling…here’s something that will have a much wider audience. Have you seen the updated satellite images of hurricane Katrina available for Goggle Earth? When you run Google Earth, many of the images you are viewing are over a year old. You can update the gulf coast images with ones that are barely days- some just hours old by logging onto: http://earth.google.com/katrina.html. Here you’ll find images taken since Katrina struck. They will load directly into your Google Earth software. Just click on the image links. Get Google Earth at: http://earth.google.com.

Many of these images are small sections superimposed over the original images. These show the tremendous amount of damage that was done. Going from the old image to the new, it’s hard to believe that you’re looking at the same place. Reach me at: randy@randybenjamin.com.