Online gambling is proving to be a very lucrative business.

No wonder everyone wants a piece of the pie.

Recent estimates show that several of Wall Street's largest firms hold sizable sums in online casinos traded in London's Stock Exchange.

It has been shown that firms including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are shareholders of gambling companies BetOnSports and SportingBet.

These US firms continue to enjoy the profits from the shares despite the fact that internet gambling is illegal in the US.

Nevertheless, gambling companies are considered great investments – by those in the know-how.

These investments only highlight the current conflict in online gambling and US law.

Such investments indicate that the online games aren't going anyway, and the law possible needs adjustment.

While based in various locals such as Costa Rica and Gibraltar, shares in the online casinos are traded on the London Stock Exchange, where online gaming laws are more relaxed than in the US.

They are, nevertheless, considered solid investments, US firms continue to pour in millions of dollars to claim their stake in the booming industry.

This growing US investment highlights the difficulties in controlling cross boarder activities taking place on the internet.

Indeed, while it is illegal to place online wagers, Americans remain the biggest source of revenue for online gambling sites.

Electronic commerce and global economy are beginning are creating a borderless economic community.

However, many legal questions, new and old, are being raised.

For example, what is the legal status of American businesses, undertaking economic relations with businesses whose practices in the US would be considered illegal?
Since with online gambling, punters are placing their bets from their own homes. Americans undertaking these actions on US soil are essentially breaking the law.

Hence the department of Justice has decreed operators of online casinos are law breakers.

But, it is all bark and no bite.

For while the Justice Department decrees the gaming illegal, they have no enforcement capabilities on neither the participants, nor the company.

In the end, money has the last say.

As the US companies agree. The profits being generated from the investments in the online gambling companies far outweigh their legal risks.

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