House panel OKs bill to stop Net gambling

[Lsufan]

Western Union ???

WASHINGTON - A House committee Wednesday approved a bill aimed at stamping out the $12 billion Internet gambling industry by stopping businesses from accepting credit cards and other forms of payment.

[SustainDan]

Lets chain ourselves to sports arenas

[casheasy]

Guys this WILL become a law. There are actually 3 bills winding their way through congress right now, and their aim is to choke off everything.

One bill simply defines the internet as part of the Wire Act.

The bill yesterday that is now going to house floor will not affect Neteller directly, as it is a foreign company....but will put pressure on your bank to not allow transactions to and from Neteller and other companies.

Another bill, and this one is the killer, will simply force Internet Service Providers (AOL, NetZero, RR, etc) to block any access to gambling websites. So you can't even go to a website, for the first time in history.

What Offshore companies are doing to make certain we can still visit their sites is uncertain. One dude told me it is simple, that an email to all customers will tell them of the new link to access once the government informs (in writing, no less) your ISP to close off one link. But obviously, I don't have the knowledge to verify that.

The free speech violations are obvious. And it will draw some ire once it becomes public because the government shouldn't be in our computers. Hell, they just told China that THEY aren't allowed to censor website access.

But some form of this will become law. It will make it tougher to send money back and forth. And the access to websites will be strangled, at least for a time. This isn't becoming public because they don't want to raise the issue and let the people know what's going on.

[SustainDan]

wow that is so fucked up...is this the united states or communist russia?

[casheasy]

It's bullshit. But we'll have to work around it somehow.

Hopefully someday soon a canadian company can give us wireless internet access, thereby giving us access to any website we wish.

Also, more banks will open offshore. But we'll have to write checks. And the process will be much slower.

Hell, this will also drive more customers to use phones instead of the internet. Imagine that LOL. Another year from now things will be much different, courtesy of the U.S. government.

[larryonion]

I just read the actual bill, seems Western Union will still be a viable option for transfer since you are always wiring to an individual. It seems to suck though for Bank transfers, Credit cards, and possibly fire pay and neteller IF they are declared associated with online gambling. Here is the link to the actual Bill's text...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4411:

As far as I can find, there is no companion bill yet in the senate. This bill has 32 congressional cosponsors so far. Most of the lobbying is being paid for by the credit card industry as they are facing one of the highest amounts of defaults ever (although gambling is the scapegoat, the real reason is the new bankruptcy rules going into effect, which makes it very hard to declare bankruptcy unless you are a corporation, so people are defaulting before the rule change...not to mention the hurricanes and the sustained unemployment rate)

Anyway....

[BigTicket]

wow that is so fucked up...is this the united states or communist russia?

United States

[therealdeal]

damn it if this was 04 i'd have saved thousands fucken bush

[therealdeal]

does this include poker i'm curious even though i never played poker for money?

[wayne1218]

damn it if this was 04 i'd have saved thousands fucken bush

[therealdeal]

its all good my nigga, at least i quit now

[casheasy]

You won't find the senate bill. Sen Jon Kyl (R-Ari) tried attaching it to lobbying reform so it could get an easy pass vote. That was blocked, so he is attaching the amendment to another bil that is easy to pass. It'll happen within 2 weeks.

[hawkbt]

They will probably ban them all, then re-allow them but make the sites provide them tax info on their members or just take a percentage period. The only reason they are opposed to online gambling is because they aren't getting any money from it.

[therealdeal]

true

[casheasy]

They will probably ban them all, then re-allow them but make the sites provide them tax info on their members or just take a percentage period. The only reason they are opposed to online gambling is because they aren't getting any money from it.


Wrong. They are attempting to appease the right wing in the United States. It's a moral crusade, which is why the democrats had no chance in the last election and stand no chance in this upcoming election. Then, in 2008, they'll get crushed again when McCain slaughters Hillary.

Our government has fooled people into believing we have to refortify our moral strength. Gambling will be the first thing to go, since it isn't grandfathered in like tobacco and alcohol.

Homosexuality is already under fire.

Abortion will be gone (legally, anyway) within 3 years.

And the hits just keep on coming.