Thoughts 31 Mar 2007 07:23 am
Online gaming
According to the NYT, the founder of the BetOnSports gambling Web site, Stephen Kaplan, was arrested late Wednesday in the Dominican Republic, the United States attorney in St. Louis, Catherine Hanaway, said on Friday.
Kaplan, 48, is personally charged with 20 felony violations of federal laws including: the Wire Act, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Conspiracy, interstate transportation of gambling paraphernalia, interference with the administration of Internal Revenue laws and tax evasion.
It’s getting harder and harder to find a place that won’t reflexively cooperate with the neighborhood bully. Foreign aide is, after all, a very big stick.
When they started arresting people as they entered the US, I thought it was rather underhanded, but now they are going after anyone involved in an online gaming business, without regard for international borders.
This begs the questions: When did we become the world’s policeman and why don’t these pissant, backwater countries show just a little backbone?
Are they so afraid and so dependent on foreign money that they can’t even protect their citizens and visitors from that collection of holier than thou evangelicals sitting in DC, with King George at the helm?
Also in the article was this: In Geneva on Friday, at the World Trade Organization, a compliance panel ruled that the United States had failed to change its ban on Internet betting to comply with a W.T.O. ruling that said the legislation unfairly aims at offshore casinos.
Washington has yet to say if it will appeal the panel’s findings. A final ruling upholding Antigua’s claims would allow the twin-island nation to seek trade sanctions on the United States for its failure to comply.
You know, it’s really hard to issue an official sounding statement while you can’t breathe, because you’re laughing too hard.
To avoid the penalties, the United States government would have to either permit Americans to gamble over foreign-based sites or eliminate exceptions for off-track betting on horses, including wagers over the Internet, as permitted under the 1978 Interstate Horseracing Act.
Translation: T’ain’t happening. Prohibition lasted for years while the self righteous, sanctimonious, religious hypocrites, tried to save us from ourselves. And these horse racing guys had the good sense to bribe the politicians early.
Don’t expect anything but kangaroo courts, and grandstanding for the press. It will take years to get this mess before the supreme court.
In the mean time people in other countries will be considered criminals for violation of a US law that contracdicts the laws of their own countries.
If another country tried to do to our citizens what we are doing to theirs, King George would be on national TV, threatening to send in the Marines.
But, you see, our law takes precedents over anybody else’s, because “God is on our side”, not to mention that we’ve got the money and the firepower.
Meanwhile back at the farm:
Online gaming continues, people find new ways to win or lose their money, and the rest of the world is just a little more afraid of us.
Combating the Internet gambling industry, which rakes in an estimated $12 billion annually, proved high on the Bush administration’s agenda this year. A controversial measure that criminalizes transferring funds related to most forms of Internet gambling received President Bush’s signature in October, albeit in a seemingly unlikely place: a massive port security bill.
They had to hide their nefarious scheme inside another bill, because they knew it would never stand up if exposed to the light of day.