Online Gambling

Congress cracked down on most forms of online gambling four years ago, concerned that the explosion in unregulated (and questionably legal) poker and sports betting sites was promoting organized crime, money laundering, underage betting and a host of other ills. The effect, though, was simply to drive U.S. residents to sites in other countries where online gambling is legal — no less convenient and, potentially, just as unregulated. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.

The inexorable push to sell almost everything online could soon include lottery tickets. Officials at the California State Lottery said they will explore selling tickets over the Internet after the Justice Department determined that such sales would not violate federal law. "It does open up a major potential channel for lottery sales in California, but right now it's just a potential channel," Robert O'Neill, who was named last week to...

Re "That's a losing hand," Opinion, Oct. 24 I never would have believed it, but Joel Stein won me over on this column. Our "moral" government trying to stop online gambling is almost the biggest joke since it started to spend billions of dollars in Iraq. When does it ever turn down tax revenue from the middle class and poor? Grow up, Washington, tax the heck out of it and save me $10 on my taxes next year. MARGO L. ALLEN Laguna Woods The ultimate irony of the bill banning Internet gambling is that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist rammed the prohibition through Congress by attaching it to the unrelated SAFE Ports Act and wouldn't let Democrats read the final language.

Full Tilt Poker, one of the most popular online gambling sites, had its operations suspended by regulators in the British Channel Islands, delivering another blow to an industry already reeling from a U.S. crackdown. The gambling commission on the island of Alderney suspended the licenses of Full Tilt Poker and affiliated companies following an investigation prompted by indictments in the U.S., according to a statement Wednesday from the commission. Those indictments, filed in New York in April, charged company executives with bank fraud and money laundering.

Full Tilt Poker, one of the most popular online gambling sites, had its operations suspended by regulators in the British Channel Islands, delivering another blow to an industry already reeling from a U.S. crackdown. The gambling commission on the island of Alderney suspended the licenses of Full Tilt Poker and affiliated companies following an investigation prompted by indictments in the U.S., according to a statement Wednesday from the commission. Those indictments, filed in New York in April, charged company executives with bank fraud and money laundering.

No issue brings out America's talent for self-deception like gambling. To persuade ourselves that we can keep this particular sin under control, we sequestered casinos in isolated places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City reachable only by superhighways, and isolated them on riverboats where not a single card could be dealt or slot lever pulled until the vessel left the dock. In Mississippi, the law used to say you couldn't have a casino unless it floated on water. After Hurricane Katrina forcibly relocated a few of these sin barges onto land, the Legislature, reading the disaster as a sign from God, revised the law to let them stay put. (The riverboat states, similarly, eventually allowed their floating casinos to remain dockside.

A U.S. House committee approved a bill that would outlaw Internet casinos and most other forms of online gambling. The Judiciary Committee voted 21-8 to send the legislation to the full House. The measure would would impose a fine equal to the value of the bet or $20,000, whichever is greater, and a maximum four-year prison sentence. Supporters said the bill will help control an unregulated and growing industry.

State and federal investigators on Wednesday raided an online gambling company in Garden Grove suspected of cheating hundreds of investors out of as much as $20 million. The Orange County raid is part of a broader crackdown by state authorities on dozens of suspected "boiler room" operations in Southern California that allegedly prey on unsophisticated investors by persuading them to pour money into dubious Internet enterprises.

The U.S. Justice Department has demanded information from some of the world's biggest investment banks as part of a probe into online gambling in the United States, banking sources said Sunday. Internet gaming was effectively banned last year after President Bush signed legislation outlawing gaming-related financial transactions at the end of September.

State and federal investigators on Wednesday raided a Garden Grove online-gambling company suspected of cheating hundreds of investors out of as much as $20 million. The Orange County raid was part of a broader crackdown by state authorities on dozens of suspected "boiler room" operations in Southern California that prey on unsophisticated investors by persuading them to pour money into dubious Internet enterprises.

Who wants to bet that the recent federal crackdown on Internet poker sites won't stop Americans from playing poker online for money? Federal agents seized the websites of three of the world's most popular online poker companies Friday, indicted 11 of their executives and associates, and filed a lawsuit seeking at least $3 billion in penalties. It was the most extensive enforcement action taken by the government since Congress enacted a law in 2006 to prohibit banks, credit-card companies and others in the financial industry from processing online gambling transactions.

A thriving online poker industry catering to Americans but operating from abroad to evade U.S. gambling laws could be wiped out by criminal charges against top executives in the business. Eleven people, including the founders of the three largest poker sites open to U.S. players, were charged by a federal grand jury with bank fraud, money laundering and violating gambling laws. The government also is seeking to recover $3 billion from the companies. The FBI had shut down two of the sites, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, by Friday evening and were working to do the same with the third, Absolute Poker.

The often stop-and-go efforts to legalize online poker in the United States gained some steam in Nevada this week, as state lawmakers began considering legislation on the issue, a casino company joined the world's top online poker website in a push for federal action, and gambling regulators for the first time approved a plan by the world's largest casino company to offer online wagering overseas. On Thursday, Nevada gambling regulators approved a business relationship between Caesars Entertainment Corp.

Congress cracked down on most forms of online gambling four years ago, concerned that the explosion in unregulated (and questionably legal) poker and sports betting sites was promoting organized crime, money laundering, underage betting and a host of other ills. The effect, though, was simply to drive U.S. residents to sites in other countries where online gambling is legal — no less convenient and, potentially, just as unregulated. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.

No issue brings out America's talent for self-deception like gambling. To persuade ourselves that we can keep this particular sin under control, we sequestered casinos in isolated places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City reachable only by superhighways, and isolated them on riverboats where not a single card could be dealt or slot lever pulled until the vessel left the dock. In Mississippi, the law used to say you couldn't have a casino unless it floated on water. After Hurricane Katrina forcibly relocated a few of these sin barges onto land, the Legislature, reading the disaster as a sign from God, revised the law to let them stay put. (The riverboat states, similarly, eventually allowed their floating casinos to remain dockside.

A co-founder of an Internet gambling company -- one of the world's richest people -- pleaded guilty to violating the federal wire act and agreed to forfeit $300 million as part of a cooperation deal. Anurag Dikshit, 37, of the British colony of Gibraltar, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges that he used the Internet to transmit interstate and foreign wagering information. The charge carries a potential prison term of up to two years. Dikshit is the co-founder of PartyGaming, an online gambling company that offered casino and poker games and catered to a U.S. audience.

Britain-based online gaming companies began cashing in the chips of their U.S. operations Friday as President Bush signed a bill aimed at restricting Internet gambling in the United States. Sportingbet and Leisure & Gaming both sold their U.S. operations for a token $1, and World Gaming directors resigned, leaving the company in the hands of administrators.

Three of the world's most-popular websites have agreed to pay a collective $31.5 million to settle allegations that they promoted illegal online gambling operations. The U.S. attorney in St. Louis announced the settlements Wednesday with Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., which she accused of selling ads that steered U.S. Web surfers to offshore gambling websites. The Justice Department considers publishers of such gambling ads to be accessories to a crime.

The European Commission dealt a blow to European online gaming companies Monday when it accepted a U.S. offer of openings in other sectors as compensation for closing the U.S. gambling market to foreign firms. European firms such as PartyGaming and Bwin Interactive Entertainment had hoped that the European Union executive body might shun a settlement and push to restore their ability to operate in the world's biggest market.