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Posts Tagged ‘Internet gambling’

Internet gambling is an essentially borderless activity that poses regulatory and enforcement challenges. The legal framework for regulating it in the United States and overseas is complex. U.S. law as it applies to Internet gambling involves both state and federal statutes. In general, gambling is regulated at the state level, with each state determining whether individuals can gamble within its borders and whether gaming businesses can legally operate there. Five states (Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, and South Dakota) have enacted laws that specifically prohibit certain aspects of Internet gambling, but laws in other states that prohibit some
types of gambling activities generally apply to Internet gaming as well.

Federal law recognizes that state laws vary and seeks to ensure that neither interstate nor foreign commerce is used to circumvent them. To date, 18 U.S.C. § 1084 (commonly referred to as the Wire Act) is the principal federal statute that has been used to prosecute Internet gambling activities across state lines. Although other acts appear to have direct applicability to on-line gambling, we are unaware of federal prosecutions under these statutes.  However, these other federal statutes have been used to prosecute gambling establishments (often located offshore) that accept bets over the telephone. According to an interactive gaming
industry services group, Internet gambling has been legalized in over 50 countries and jurisdictions, mostly in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Australia/Pacific region. A few countries and jurisdictions have prohibited it, but we were unable to determine the exact number.