Aided by Poker Devotees, Lawmaker Pushes to End the Ban on Online Gambling | Hacker News Reader

Aided by Poker Devotees, Lawmaker Pushes to End the Ban on Online Gambling

nytimes.com

20 pointsmshafrir11 comments

I think that this is probably a good thing, for the reason that the ban is basically unenforceable.

Gambling sites can be legally operated from other countries, and I doubt that law enforcement officers can easily catch gamblers.

In fact this law has protected some gamblers. Cynthia Haines lost over 70k from online gambling and was sued when she refused to pay it. She counter-sued saying that the companies should not have authorized the illegal charges. The suit was settled in her favor.

Yes, and they haven't tried to catch gamblers. They just forced banks and credit card processors to refuse to allow payments to gambling sites.

I'm sure there are ways around it, but most people won't bother.

Gambling addiction operates on the same mechanism as MMO addiction. Given what we know about behavioral psychology, it's not logical to regulate gambling, but not MMOs.

The LARP companies don't have the money for lobbyists.

Uh, except LARPs are legal and gambling isn't... ?

As far as I can tell, the point of the grandparent is that "professional and amateur sports organizations" (as mentioned in the article) have money to lobby against online gambling, but LARPers don't have money to lobby against WoW(?)

Hey now, my beloved World of Warcraft is not a "lightning bolt! lightning bolt!" LARP.

Don't expect the law to reflect a consistent logical system any time soon.

Interesting to note that online sports betting will remain illegal under this bill due to intense lobbying by the NFL.

"Good handicappers can win against the house in sports betting, but it is impossible for anyone to win in the long run on slot machines, roulette or lotteries because they are totally random and based on luck with the house edge built in. Australia has recognized this and told its citizens that they are permitted to bet sports online, but it doesn’t want them wasting money on gambling where they can’t win. In America (and Canada) the states would rather citizens only bet on games where they can’t possibly win, hence essentially making the legalized gambling a hidden tax. It’s truly unfortunate, but is also a sign of the times." -H. Johnson, majorwager.com

The country is losing billions to offshore poker sites in both potential tax revenue and oversea company profits. To ban online gaming when it's perfectly legal to do it in person is ludicrous.

I really, really despise Barney Frank as a politician but i'm with him on this one.

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