"Unlikely That Web Crackdown Will Pan Out, Experts Say"

Internet gambling industry experts are claiming that Washington’s threats to get tough with online gambling businesses are basically of little consequence due to unsolved legal questions concerning the online gambling industry. PartlyGaming, the world’s biggest online poker company, mentions the legal ambiguity issue concerning online gambling in the United States in its prospectus that was released earlier this month. Still, many industry experts think that it is doubtful that U.S. law enforcements agencies are going to pursue the company in spite of supposed threats to arrest and prosecute its owners. Joseph Kellen, a University of Buffalo professor of business law argues that the chances of law enforcement agencies actually going after PartlyGaming, or for that matter any other owners of online gambling companies, are as remote as the chance of being hit by lightening. Kellen has helped other countries draft online gambling regulations in the past.

On the other hand, The United States Department of Justice, argues that Internet gambling is in violation of several laws prohibiting interstate gambling and vows to take legal action against violators. There is in fact, one approach that has already been taken by the Department of Justice in its attempt to prevent Internet gambling sites from successfully operating within the United States. That is to place pressure on credit card services such as VISA and PayPal forcing them to block payments to gambling sites. In addition such media outlets as Yahoo have decide not to run advertisements for online gambling sites. Nevertheless efforts of law enforcement agencies have done nothing to slow down gambling online by United States citizens due to their reluctance to pursue individual Internet bettors. Measures that have so far been taken by the Department of Justice have done nothing to stop millions of United States citizens from placing bets over the Internet on offshore Web sites such as PartlyGamings’s Gibraltar based poker web site, PartlyPoker.com.

In spite of the fact that legislation has been introduced unsuccessfully to the Congress several times before and failed, efforts to pass anti gambling laws that apply specifically to the Internet have not ceased. Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl, in fact, is expected to initiate another anti-gambling bill this summer. A spokesperson for Kyl said that the latest bill would be updated to in order to reflect the explosive expansion of the industry.

Former state of New Jersey gambling regulator Frank Cataniast, who now works as a advisor to the industry, also thinks that the United States doesn’t in reality have a legal leg to stand on in its fight against the online gaming industry. He is reported as saying that the Department of Justice is just sending out messages in order to avoid an actual confrontation where they might have to prove themselves in a court of law.