Wanna bet you can bet online?

[BingoT]

Wanna bet you can bet online?

Any adult can go to Las Vegas and bet his life's savings without fear of federal agents coming in and slapping the cuffs on him.

Even closer to home, any adult can bet it all on the horses at Balmoral Park in Crete, and the only risk is the money handed over to the teller.

So why can't people sit in front of a computer and place an innocuous bet on a favorite pro or college sports team?

The answer is that it's illegal.

It is too hard for federal and state authorities to regulate such businesses, especially keeping track of monetary transactions, authorities say.

Robert J. Rasmussen, 42, 7432 W. 161st St., Tinley Park, and John Bowling, 60, 9425 Boardwalk, Orland Park, are finding that out the hard way, authorities say.

The two were indicted Wednesday with 28 others in New York, Florida, Nevada and Panama for being part of a multimillion-dollar offshore betting operation, New York officials said.

The operation set up several betting Web sites for potential bettors and routed the transactions to offshore servers in Panama, according to the indictment.

When betting is done by using some sort of communication across international lines, that's the problem.

The U.S. Justice Department says online sports gambling falls under the auspices of the federal Interstate Wire Act of 1961. Though online betting certainly did not exist at the time the act was passed, it's the transfer of money through a "wire communications facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers" that puts online betting within the scope of the law.
BY MICHAEL DRAKULICH
The Story

[dealer wins]

For a "free nation" they dont like their citizens having too much freedom do they.

The US government is nearly as bad as the UK in that respect