New US threat to online gambling

[jetset]

Well, the Minnesota enforcement demand deadline has now passed and apparently not a single ISP has bothered to respond to it.

And iMEGA says it has had discussions with the state AG who is not going to push the issue.

It will be interesting to see where John Willems, the Minnesota director of enforcement who started this appallingly badly researched initiative, goes from here.

[alfred666]

Looks like this battle is over.
The following is taken from egrmagazine.com:


Minnesota drops action to make ISPs block gambling sites


The US state of Minnesota has dropped action to force internet service providers (ISPs) including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to block state residents’ access to a 'blacklist’ of 200 gambling websites.

As reported on EGRmagazine.com, the action by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) faced opposition from bodies including America’s Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) lobby group, which wrote to the 11 ISPs last month telling them to ignore the order, as well asking the District Court in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s biggest city, to prevent the DPS from enforcing the order (more).

Representative Pat Garafolo, who submitted the original bill seeking to block state residents’ access, issued the announcement, which he said occurred after “the legal position was reconsidered.”

Garafolo said in a statement: “This is a great day for internet freedom. In the spirit of cooperation and in recognition of the rescission of these notices, I am more than happy to withdraw my bill and in its place sponsor a discussion aimed at establishing a framework for regulating and licensing the online gaming industry.”

The bill was also opposed by America’s Poker Players Alliance (PPA). PPA Minnseota State Director Matthew Werden said: “Minnesota poker players made our voices heard, the state listened and ended its ill-advised and improper attempt to circumvent the rights of Minnesota poker players.”

In other US egaming regulation news, the state of Illinois is close to passing a bill to legalise online horse betting (more), while California is debating a bill to legalise intra-state poker (more).

At federal level, a bill to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was submitted by Representative Barney Frank last month (more).

[jetset]

It's a little confusing at present - the PPA is claiming as above, but iMEGA (which played a major role in attacking this badly thought through enforcement initiative) is saying it is still active.

Perhaps more clarity will emerge in the next few days, as Rep. Garafalo seems pretty confident that we've seen the back of this ridiculous attempt by officialdom to censor the Internet. And in his position, he probably knows better than anyone else.

[Mousey]

Minn. regulators drop bid to block online gambling
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer - Mon Jun 8, 2009 2:05PM EDT

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota regulators may have been outplayed when they bet a decades-old federal law would lend itself to an online gambling crackdown.

Following a lawsuit by the gambling industry, which considers the push a violation of federal commerce and free-speech protections, state officials said Monday they'll withdraw a demand that Internet service providers block access to hundreds of sites.

In exchange for the state backing off, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association filed court papers Monday ending its court fight.

The chairman of the online gambling trade group didn't ...