Specifics of New Legislation: Blocking Sites
Countries all over the world are now grappling with issues on how precisely to
regulate and handle the rapidly emerging online casino industry. Several
counties have tries all out gambling bans, while others have no real enforced
regulation, and still other countries have taken the position of licensing and
regulating the industry. And although the online casinos industry is still quite
young, only the latter of the choices has proven a truly effective means of
controlling internet gambling.
Because of the pervasive nature of the Internet, countries that presume to ban
online casinos and other forms of internet gambling are merely moving the
industry into the more sinister underground and unregulated sector of society.
Bans are not effective because they are impossible. A recent panel of industry
experts were organized in Cologne to review the newly proposed German State
Treaty on gambling. The panel was able to technically prove that Web sites,
online casinos related or otherwise, are quite simply impossible to block.
When a country blocks an online casino site, the burden of the block is placed
directly on the Internet Service Providers. And when they are unable to
effectively enforce the banning of the site, they government and legislators
have a specific place to point fingers, when in fact the legislation was
designed to fail. It is virtually technically impossible to completely ban
online casinos sites.
The most concise explanation for why blocking online casinos sites is next to
impossible is explained by Rolf vom Stein, an internet expert. He remarks, "The
attempt to block the Internet contradicts technical reality. The Internet treats
any form of censorship as an error, and will find ways to bypass it.”
And as for the technical reasons why the online casinos banning is ineffective,
he notes, "All established methods for the blocking of websites are complex and
technically fragmentary. Also, blocking measures can be prevented or bypassed
very easily by new technical developments (Web 2.0), through simple
modifications by the providers or sometimes even through steps taken unawares by
the users."
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