Off-shore Gambling Issues
Online Gambling refers to any type of gambling conducted online. This includes sports betting, casinos and virtual poker. In 1994, the first ever online gambling site open to the public, was ticketing for the prestigious Liechtenstein International Poker Tournament. Although it was not exactly a success, as many people expected, the trend has been steadily growing and now there are online betting sites for just about any type of gambling that you can think of – including lottery tickets, horse races, airline flights, and poker tournaments.
Online wagering gained its start when the U.S. federal ban on online gambling was enacted. The ban, implemented by the Department of Justice (the same agency which bans online pharmacies and adult websites), prohibits wagering in the U.S. Online wagering is very different from land-based wagering, in that all wagers are made using money that cannot be controlled by the individual. Therefore, when placing a bet online, you don’t have access to money that can actually be lost. Therefore, in addition to being against the law, online gambling is also against the general principles of civilized society.
While many people may still believe that internet gambling is legal in the United States because the U.S. Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce, this power has never been used to ban gambling online. Therefore, even if a state has a law allowing internet gambling, the laws are not applied uniformly. This means that there is a huge risk that laws written by a state will be challenged in court by other states with similar laws. The best defense against internet gambling is to simply follow the law and play by the rules.
The best way to ensure that the laws applied in one country do not conflict with those applied in another country is to avoid placing bets at all when possible. Although there are some great benefits to be derived from playing at online casinos, the greatest danger is that people will not have money to place bets with at the casino when they get there. Many countries have laws that require all players to be members of a licensed gambling establishment in order to gamble. These establishments run their own legal casinos, and therefore have complete control over their property. They are the ones that usually run the internet casinos that are often considered the most profitable.
However, not all online casinos are run by legally recognized establishments. In fact, many times an individual will run an online gambling site without any government recognition. The lack of government oversight has led to problems including the use of fake winning numbers and the posting of false odds on the site. However, many legitimate casinos have opened their doors to internet gambling by providing gaming opportunities for individuals who would not otherwise be able to enjoy them.
The US Gambling Commission takes the position that all laws regarding gambling are enforced equally throughout the country. The commission is very concerned about the increasing number of instances in which individuals from outside the United States are found to be involved in online gambling activities. The commission has taken action against a number of these online casino sites, in an effort to stop the kind of illegal activities that they describe taking place. For example, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against one off-shore gambling site in Las Vegas that had encouraged users to register with stolen credit card information in order to gamble. There are also cases in which the commission has issued cease and desist orders to a number of online casino operations as a means of making individuals who conduct business with them aware that the commission has the right to close their accounts.