New US threat to online gambling

[ThomasJensen]

As the online gambling industry converges on Amsterdam to attend the Amsterdam Affiliate Conference and as Congress gets ready to debate the issue of internet gambling regulations, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) announced that it has served written notice to 11 national and regional telephone and Internet service providers (ISPs) instructing them to prohibit access of all Minnesota-based computers to nearly 200 online gambling websites. Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association, iMEGA will be reaching out to all concerned parties today to block this action.

http://www.point-spreads.com/industr...ing-sites.html

[jetset]

ONLINE GAMBLING FACES NEW U.S. THREAT

Now Minnesota authorities issue bans to ISPs in Internet censorship move

In a move reminiscent of recent Australian attempts to censor the Internet at ISP level, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) today announced that it has served written notice to 11 national and regional telephone and Internet service providers (ISPs) instructing them to prohibit access of all Minnesota-based computers to nearly 200 online gambling websites.

Apparently the notification includes an assertion that online gambling is illegal in all US states. The sites banned are not identified in initial reports on the ban.

AT&T Internet Services, San Antonio; Charter Communications, St. Louis; Comcast Cable, Moorestown, N.J.; Direct TV, Los Angeles; Dish Network, Englewood., Colo.; Embarq and Sprint/Nextel, both of Overland Park, Kan.; Frontier Communications, Stamford, Conn.; Qwest, Denver; Verizon Wireless, Bedminster, N.J.; and Wildblue Communications, Greenwood Village, Colo. are among the sites served with the notice.

John Willems, director of AGED said: “We are putting site operators and Minnesota online gamblers on notice and in advance. Disruption of these sites’ cash flow will negatively impact their business models. State residents with online escrow accounts should be aware that access to their accounts may be jeopardized and their funds in peril.”

Believed the first attempt by a state to employ this federal statute to restrict access to online gambling sites, the letters cites U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1084, (d); notices were delivered Monday April 27, 2009. Congress enacted the "Wire Act" statute in 1961, and its use has hitherto been confined to sportsbetting issues, although the Department of Justice has claimed it applies to all online gambling - something yet to be fully tested in the courts, although a contrary ruling was issued by the Fifth Circuit Court some years ago.

Response from the notified ISPs is expected within two to three weeks, at which time issues of non-compliance will be referred to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is presumably a veiled threat against licenses.

Acknowledging the effort as an initial sample, Willems anticipates the program expanding to address thousands of sites, depending on compliance. He notes that the required technology to restrict geographic access to particular sites is a relatively straightforward procedure on the part of service providers.

In the written notices, AGED also provided the sites’ telephone numbers and requested access to those numbers by Minnesotans to be prohibited. For more than two decades, telecoms have shut down telephone numbers at the request of law enforcement agencies when believed to be involved in illegal activities, such as sports book-making telephone numbers.

“In Minnesota, and for Minnesotans, the primary issues are legality, state self-governance and accountability,” says Willems. “In broader context, the long-running debate on online gambling continues to raise significant issues, including absence of policy and regulation, individual rights, societal impact, international fair-trade practices, and funding for criminal and terrorist organizations.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/439...EP7vDEh7P:DiUs

[RobWin]

So it basically sounds like the sites in question simply need to change their phone number or set-up one with another provider. I don't see though how they can enforce "The Wire Act" upon those residents with satellite link-up service for the net. Don't see how that case could even be won in District court.

[jetset]

It certainly creates yet another diversion in the already complicated US legal scene, especially bearing in mind the historical reluctance of the DoJ to actually test it's claim that the Wire Act applies to all Internet gambling and not just sportsbetting in the courts.

I suspect that iMEGA and the several civil society and Internet freedom bodies in the States will be all over this in the very near future.

It's definitely going to be interesting to watch, as it is an even more overt assault on the freedom of the Internet than Governor Beshear's escapades in Kentucky.

[kauphy]

if they can shut them down that way then why can,t they do the same for internet porn? gezzz why don,t they all start treating us like 5 year olds and come into our homes to sit our computers on perntal contol so we can only go to the site our goverment wants us 2. someone is getting paid off by porn sites caz u never hear about all the sites that kids can log onto and the sites that have kids doing things a grown up would blush at. shows what is inportent to the goverment and i don,t say my goverment caz it is no longer for the people by the people.

[cpdnd31]

I'm so glad I live in the land of the free!!!! I can't smoke in IL, Ilegal to gamble online, whats next oh i know lets make them pay the highest taxes in the country. WTF but i can go to a bar get drunk and drive lol. Our country really needs to rethink its priorities. ok that felt good anyone want to join me for a drink now. Im driving.

[Casinomeister]

...

Apparently the notification includes an assertion that online gambling is illegal in all US states...

<sigh> will it ever end?

All it takes is one politician to make a false statement (in this case that online gaming is illegal), and the media and nearly everyone else sucks up to it.

It happens all the time - weapons of mass destruction (there weren't any), we only use 10% of our brain (we use all of it - except for a few politicians), the Columbine shooters were Goths and in the "Trenchcoat Mafia" (they weren't). I'm not trying to equate the severity of these topics, I'm trying to illustrate a pattern.

Most people - and especially people who have decision making powers - are unschooled in whatever they are trying to propose, and the media follows along with them like happy little puppy dogs.

[Jasminebed]

Thank you very much for this informative and disturbing post.

I'm in Canada...is Minnesota currently one of the banned US states?

You have to wonder at a government that can issue this kind of ban to an activity that is legal for of age players at government run facilities.

[winbig]

Here's the AP article...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...wXKYgD97S96480

And my blogged thoughts on it:

http://www.gamesandcasino.com/gambli...ambling-sites/

[Mousey]

I'm still trying to figure out just exactly what this means for people there. And, like another poster, is Minn. a state that specifically has a law against online gambling? And what does this mean for those who like to visit us here at Casinomeister?

I do wish someone with balls and money would take on all these stupid little pissant lawmakers that nibble away at our basic rights and open up a can of whupass in the court system. Take it to court, take it down to the finish.

There are SO many more important things for our governing officials to worry about other than whether Joe Schmoe is going to blow $25 at a freaking online casino. Yes, there are addicts and ne'erdowells gambling when they shouldn't. But then again, there are people in goverment postions pretending to have brains when they don't and spending taxpayers money on stupid crap like this. And I do believe this idiotic move will cost them... I can only hope that, while Justice may be blind, she's not totally dead.

Pardon the rant... I'm just so sick of all this stupid sh*t...