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My Blog
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My name is Victor H. Royer, and I am the author of 20 books on casino games and gaming. These books can be found on my main page . On this page, I intend to post some of my comments on various events, and some email from my readers, and my answers. Thank you for visiting!
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The Truth About Internet Gambling and Internet Poker
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As you may know, five minutes before the closing of the last Congress, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist surreptitiously, sneakily, and subversively attached the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 to the important Port Security Bill. This underhanded act of a desperate despot -- seeking to serve himself in his now unsuccessful run for President -- had the effect of driving away from the American market the good and publicly traded Internet Poker rooms. However, there is a lot of confusion about exactly what this Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 actually does. So, to put this in perspective, I offer the following analysis, and my personal opinion, as well as a link to Professor I. Nelson-Rose's web site where he provides a terrific legal analysis of this great Congressional misdeed.
First of all, there is NO Internet poker ban, and NO Internet gaming bad. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 does NOT prohibit Internet gaming. It is designed to stop banks from financial transactions directly with Internet gaming sites. This is something that was already done several years ago, when the Credit Card companies decided to pull out for fear of being targeted by the Justice Department, even though the DOJ had NO LAW to fall back on. The Wire Act of 1961 was ruled by the Supreme Court as applicable ONLY to sports -- and ONLY if the bet is made directly with the bookie!
The Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 -- so sneakily forced through by Bill Frist -- does nothing to online gaming, especially poker. Since banks mostly don't deal with Internet sites at all, it has no applicability. Furthermore, since the Act mandates that the banks enforce it, but doesn't say how, or who would be responsible for the oversight, nothing has changed in Internet poker. The DOJ has 270 days to figure out what, if anything, is illegal, and how, if at all possible, it can be enforced. It has now provided some guidelines, but there are several pending actions that would invalidate them.
Finally, since most online banking is done through non-gaming third parties, such as Internet Wallets, this Act does not apply. Notwithstanding the actions taken by the DOJ against Neteller, that is still a fact. The Neteller actions were more directed against sports betting than anything else, but even that was not, and is not, covered under the UIGEA.
Furthermore, financial transactions between US bank customers and any other merchant are supposed to be protected not only by international banking regulations -- and the rulings of the WTO -- but most importantly by the US Constitution itself. What a US citizen does with his or her money is one of the principal personal rights under the US Constitution. So is freedom of association, and a slew of other such provisions, all of which are, or can be, seen to be violated if the current Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is actually upheld as -- somehow -- enforceable.
The only reason why major Internet poker operators, such as Party Poker and the Ongame network, decided to pull out of the US market after the Bill Frist underhanded misuse of Congressional power, was because they did not want to be the "test case" for any DOJ witch hunt, spawned by this idiotic misuse of Congressional legislative authority. All of this will blow away. The new congress will most likely change this, or repeal it, or the courts will find it unenforceable, if the DOJ decides to continue its own misuse of power as this applies to the rights and freedoms of Americans. To help, support the bill being introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, and the activities of the Poker Player's Alliance.
For more information, I suggest any interested parties read the excellent postings on this subject by Professor I. Nelson Rose, at this link:
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More content on its way, as I build on this page. Thanks for reading.
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