Gamblers In the Know
The United States online casino gambling market could be in for some real surges
in the coming months and years as more and more US gamblers are aware of the
fact that internet gambling is not actually illegal for them in the country.
Internet gambling is only illegal in Washington State right now – this is the
only US state where gamblers can actually be prosecuted and punished for
engaging in internet gambling activity. For the first several years that the
UIGEA was in effect, a large portion of America actually believed that the
federal government had made offshore online casinos illegal. That is not the
case though, and only the processing of gambling transactions is illegal in the
states – a distinction that means that if gamblers can find a site that will
take them, it’s not illegal to use that site.
It’s interesting this awareness has progressed over the past several years
because the US Department of Justice has only continued to ramp up its
enforcement efforts against the online casinos. The US government would prefer
if US gamblers thought that the activity was illegal, but player interest groups
like the PPA have continually spread the word and asserted the player’s right to
access online poker in particular, but also the internet casinos. Interestingly,
Americans by and large want the federal and/or state governments involved in
regulating the online casino gambling industry as a safeguard against underage
and problem gambling.
The US government though has taken to ineffect bans and blocks in the market
that are only creating an underground and black market US online casino gambling
market. As more gamblers become aware of the fact that internet gambling is not
actually illegal in the US, there is a growing number of US citizens seeking out
these underground and unregulated sites. |