Bush formally outlaws online gambling

[Mister K]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9070-2402645,00.html

World Gaming today entered administration, just hours before President George Bush formally outlawed internet betting in the US, previously the sector's most important market.

PokerStars says it will battle on. Poker is a game of skill, and therefore exempt, it claims. Don't bet on it.

President Bush dashed any hopes of a eleventh-hour reprieve for US-facing online gaming companies when he signed off the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passing into law legislation that has already thrown the British online betting sector into turmoil.

...

Separately, rival Sportingbet, which had earlier pulled out of talks over a possible £56.6 million takeover of World Gaming, today said it had sold its US operations for $1.

(For those DU'ers that play on Paradise Poker, you can play until Nov 13,2006 )

[SteppingRazor]

1. Full headline -- Bush bans online gaming, to no effect.

The Napster ban didn't do much to outlaw online file sharing. I doubt this'll do much either.

[lfairban]

15. That is what this article says.

Will ban end Internet gambling? Don’t bet on it

. . . and according to this, poker is not covered by the bill anyway:

Legal Landscape of Online Gaming Has Not Changed

[rodeodance]

2. Frist tacked it onto the Port bill.

[EnviroBat]

3. I would think...

that this fucker has more pressing issues to deal with. Honestly, who gives a shit about on-line gambling anyway? If people are stupid enough to gamble their money awaythen let them. Soon President Asshat won't be "outlawing" shit!

[Vexatious Ape]

4. Freedom is on the march

These sniveling Puritan bastards make me sick.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. That will make his RW Christian base happy.

[Kierkegaard]

7. My wing nut fundy MIL is PISSED about this.

She is a gambling fool and sees no conflict with her religious beliefs.

It's amazing the lengths they will go to prevent others from exercising their freedoms, but have no problem justifying their own vices.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Wow, the SBC here has been successful in defeating 'river boat'

gambling for the last 12 years! All the local preachers call it 'sin'.

[Lance_Boyle]

10. Not really. Lots of them gamble.

This will make Vegas and Atlantic City happy, as well as the Indian and riverboat casino folks.

[leesa]

21. Lots of these new-fangled Christians gamble. It cracks me up to see all

the fish-mobiles and 'not of this world' stickers on cars along with the casino stickers and rolling dice stickers.

Somehow it seems to work together. Sort of like the Catholic bingo thing.

[onenote]

6. odd -- and misleading -- headline

More accurate headline would be: Bush signs legislation passed by Congress outlawing online gambling.

The way its written it sounds like this was unilateral action by Bush, not a law passed by Congress.

The Internet Gambling provision passed the House with the support of a majority of Democrats as a stand alone bill. THe Senate hadn't acted on it, so it was added to the Safe Ports bill which was enacted by COngress just before they recessed.

[TomInTib]

8. But you can gamble on stocks on-line all day long.

And about that Port bill.

Didn't say aquat about DPW, did it?

[lfairban]

9. I am sure the paper did not proof read this before posting.

World Gaming today entered administration, just hours before President George Bush formally outlawed internet betting in the US

I am sure World Gaming would have liked to enter the * administration, but I am sure that is not what the paper meant.

But seriously folks, what the article fails to mention is that this ban does not apply to poker.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. I figured 'entered adminstration'

was brit-speak, meaning something akin to entering receivership or bankruptcy or something in the US. Anyone know? Bueller?

[htuttle]

13. I believe you are correct

Similar meaning to 'receivership', as far as I know.

[ccpup]

12. does this legislation

also affect online betting on horses? I have a friend who loves doing that (it's his downtime from a stressful job) and, if it does, I gotta let him know!

[lfairban]

16. In a word, no.

There was a specific carve-out for horse racing.

[sofa king]

23. Looks to me like the dog-trackers got screwed though.

For years, previous versions of the bill excepted parimutuel betting, which effectively left the door open for all sorts of things like dog racing, jai-alai, some lottery games, and of course horse racing. The dog racers weren't content with that and wrangled themselves a special exception several years running.

I know Washington well enough to know this for sure: the entire gambling industry is going to be pissed and they're going to start injecting millions of dollars into lobbying and political races in order to hack out exemptions for their pet industries.

Dems like Robert Wexler are going to come out way ahead as a result of this.

[IntravenousDemilo]

17. I bet the folks at Ameritrade are sweating bullets now.

It's the same thing, you know, betting on football games or betting on the stock market. People who "invest" in the market are little more than people with a gambling addiction.

[onehandle]

18. "Bush gives incomplete hand job to fundies."

As usual, he is conning them for votes.

Suckers.

[blondeatlast]

19. Add "cocktease" to the GWB Descriptive Dictionary. "Whiner" was added

just yesterday, I believe. :rofl:

[BlueInPhilly]

20. There are die-hard Repug gamblers

who are very upset right now. I wish I could find that LTTE where this guy says he is so disappointed in his GOP party because they're planning to outlaw on-line gambling. It was pretty amusing to read.

[sofa king]

22. Well, I guess all that gambling will just disappear in a puff of smoke.

Either that, or someone in another country will be making all the money. I can't decide which it's going to be.