Have you ever bet on sporting events on the internet? Did you win?
2006-10-02 12:45:44 · 3 answers · asked by rasckal 3 in Sports ➔ Other - Sports
No it is not against the law, and so far cyrenaica gave the best answer, as for potsie #88, NetTeller is included in the ban, you need to read page 35 and 36 of the law as presented (Pages 32 through 57 provide the names and bank codes of all places American banks can not direct money to).
Also, once George Bush signs the bill, it goes into law immediately, not a year later.....so far Citibank has already advised it's affiliates to comply with the proposed law immediately.
And for Mr. Bush.....get a life...you have treaties with various other countries dealing with various facets of human life. You can tax the people instead of crafting nonsensical laws like this?
Is gambling addictive...sure it is
Are drugs? sure they are but I don't see a hude drop in the drug trade..
Are cigarettes? yep....but I see walls of them in every corner store I've entered in the last 47 years!
The whole world knows that you are only protecting Las Vegas. But hey, if you took that Nevada exemption and applied it to the entire country.........think of how many jobs the gaming industry would create, think of how much more the IRS could get. The whole world knows that the success of the NCAA and the NFL is gambling driven (and may fine University theses have been written on the subject).
Oh, and legalizing and regulating the sex industry will be a boon to the government coffers as well!
2006-10-03 07:41:26 · answer #1 · answered by Trevor R NYC 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No it is not against the law.
However, if you are an American citizen, it will become increasingly harder to do it as there has been a law pushed through D.C. that prevents banks from sending money to Internet Gambling Sites via money order, credit card, internet transfer, etc. The law also prevents banks from dealing with companies like NetTeller, etc that act as a middleman.
If you are an American, and over the age of 18, and want to bet on sporting events, you will have to find other ways to get your money to these sites (many accept cash sent to them, wired through Western Union, etc).
It should be noted that there are currently banks in North America, and other betting sites, which already have similar rules in place (i.e. Mastercard Canada will not approve transfers to certain gambling sites).
Personally, I have been betting on sports events through the internet for several years, and I win often. My choice this past weekend was $200.00 on Tennessee to beat Memphis (NCAA Football)...they did, I won $34.00.
Response to Treborius59
People need to realize that the law is not directed at sports gambling, but internet gambling in general. There has been an upsurge in the amount of credit card money going to these sites, and as a result, a lot of money that is unrecoverable.
The senators resposnible for this bill looked at it from two directions
1) Protect the banks and their shareholders - if people can't use the money to gamble, they can't get in debt, and the banks can't lose money
2) Protecting Americans from themselves - There was a time that in order to gamble, you needed to take a trip to gambling locations. That was not always an option for the lower working class American (who had credit cards but not enough of a limit to fly to Vegas, Atlantic City etc AND still have enough to gamble). Along comes the internet, and boom, suddenly anybody with a credit card just had to go online and trust the system and could gamble within hours. Many people did just that and lost money...and many lost more money than they could pay back.
People forget that when eBay bought PayPal, the first thing they did was stop transfers to known gambling sites. MasterCard stopped making transfers to certain sites starting in 2003. Two large banks in Canada stopped transfers to several gambling sites in 2004.
People need to learn to read the fine print...the cards belong to the bank, not to you, and the banks set the rules for use, not the customer, and as long as the customer uses the card in accordance with the rules set out by the financial institution everybody's happy. When that stops happening, things need to change. And this is a step in that direction.
Some banks will be upset because they will lose money on the transfer fees
Some consumers will be upset because they feel that this is a breach of their privacy
And some of these online sites will be upset, because some of them have 95% of their business from American residents.
It is time for an American senator, or State representative to provide a meaningful solution that benefits everybody rather than just declaring it illegal.
2006-10-02 12:56:08 · answer #2 · answered by cyrenaica 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes it is and now it is illegal for banks and credit-card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.
Congress just passed a law to this affect.
2006-10-02 12:51:55 · answer #3 · answered by Carlos D 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋