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Las Vegas Sands Corp. will be the first Nevada gaming operator to allow guests to gamble at its Venetian Resort Hotel Casino using hand-held mobile gambling devices. Last March, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved the use of wireless hand-held devices for gambling in public areas of casinos such as restaurants, nightclubs and poolside where the activity can be monitored by the casino's security and surveillance system.
Starting on June 7, 2006, under new legislation, Washington State residents who gamble online may, on conviction, be liable for a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment for a term of five year, or both. The new bill upgrades online gambling from a misdemeanor to a Class C felony. Surprisingly, the Washington State Gambling Commission confirmed to reporters at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that commission agents had gone to the homes of several gamblers in the state a year ago to warn them that online gambling was illegal but no one was arrested. This is surprising to me because it suggests that either the Internet activity of several citizens of Washington was being monitored for a suspected misdemeanor or that credit card, charge card or other payment transfer companies provided information to enforcement agencies on targeted off-shore merchants and their Washington clients who paid those merchants for services. It seems to me that there are important privacy issues at stake that will need to be resolved as more and more anti-online gambling legislation comes into force in the US.
Today, the US House Judiciary Committee passed the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act - a bill banning gambling over state lines or using the Internet and banning gambling businesses from accepting payments such as credit cards, checks, wire and Internet transfers in illegal gambling transactions as well as giving law enforcement authority to uphold the new legislation. The bill includes an exemption for the horse racing industry which would allow it to continue to conduct interstate, account, and Internet wagering. The bill moves to the full House of Representatives for consideration. You can read the story in Business Week.
Surprising news today from PartyGaming Plc -- Anurag Dikshit (who ranked 207th on the Forbes list of the world's richest people) and Vikrant Bhargavar (one of India's 40th richest people) resigned from the board of PartyGaming Plc, effective immediately.
A US House of Representatives subcommittee approved Senator Bob Goodlatte's anti-online gambling bill today. If passed, the bill would update an existing ban on interstate gambling over telephone lines and outlaw the use of Internet technology to place bets. It would prohibit a gaming business from accepting credit cards, checks, and wire transfers for gambling transactions. You can view Goodlatte's bill at his site here. A summary of it is available here.
The price of shares of the well-known overseas online gambling sites, such as PartyGaming Plc and 888 Holdings Plc tumbled about 5% on news that the bill was approved by the subcommittee.
This post is about the law, politics and economics – and how all three are grappling with one of British Columbia's fastest growing businesses.
The business is online gambling, and it’s a tidal wave. Assisted by the popularity of sports wagering and the resurgence of poker as a mainstream recreation, online gambling is one of the fastest growing activities of British Columbia consumers. The problem? The actual businesses aren’t in British Columbia. They’re offshore companies (some of them publicly listed on foreign stock exchanges) that are draining gamblers’ money out of the province and leaving too little behind in the way of benefits.
Continue reading "Biting the Bullet for Online Gaming in Canada" »
