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U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

bloomberg.com

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Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#41

Post by Phlarp »

seibelj wrote: post #35
MRD85 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Australia, which has very relaxed gambling laws. I can walk into most pubs/bars in my city and find poker machines for example, as well as a sports/horse betting facility. There are huge social consequences to gambling. If you look at an entire society you have some people that will have problems with it and some people that won't. You may fall into the "won't" pile but surely society benefits if we prevent…

I live in the USA, which has very relaxed alcohol laws. I can walk into most pubs/bars in my city and find people getting extremely drunk for example, as well as a retail liquor facilities. There are huge social consequences to drinking. If you look at an entire society you have some people that will have problems with it and some people that won't. You may fall into the "won't" pile but surely society benefits if we…

Excellent. Do gun laws next!

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#42

Post by bsenftner »

existencebox wrote: post #18
ejstronge wrote: post #5

As it may be of interest, here's the related portion of the Wire Act: Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to…

By my most literal interpretation of this law my inlaws can now be arrested for our march madness bracket. This seems absurd that we've let even this level of ambiguity come to pass in a country that used to pride itself on personal liberty; especially when the law was paid for by clear corporate cronyism and special interests to benefit from its passage. Can anyone legally versed tell me why I shouldn't be this ince…

Well, clearly we can not infringe upon the personal liberty of the corporate person that is paying for this law to be enacted. That would be wrong, in today's 3/5ths equality between humans and corporate persons.

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#43

Post by cphoover »

Sheldon Adelson = Big GOP money.

"Adelson's newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was the only major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump.[42][43]

Adelson was also the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.[44]" -- Wikipedia

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#44

Post by conbandit »

joobus wrote: post #32

Except for stocks, bonds, options, futures, and forex. Wall St is the only authorized online gambling establishment.

While there is some amount of speculation, it represents a small portion of the entire financial space. If you sincerely hold this view, you should take a closer look at the purpose of financial instruments and markets.

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#45

Post by stcredzero »

rebuilder wrote: post #33
stcredzero wrote: post #31

I've been thinking of running a periodic contest in my MMO game. The one who can camp out for at least a minimum time span, the furthest out in space will win a prize. (Space, in the as-yet unimplemented design, would get deadlier by the square of distance from home base at coordinate 0,0) Prize entrants have to pay something like $1 and completely eschew non-cosmetic in-game purchases. How would the law distinguish…

Why would it?

The game is designed to be mostly about the skill and resourcefulness of the players.

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#46

Post by ataturk »

joobus wrote: post #32

Except for stocks, bonds, options, futures, and forex. Wall St is the only authorized online gambling establishment.

I enjoy the hyberbole, but those financial instruments are not gambling the same way Vegas is gambling where odds are set by the house in conjunction with the state gaming commission.

Individuals who speculate on stocks, options, and futures are gambling in a sense because they aren't using those instruments the way they are intended to be used. But that's their business.

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#47

Post by larrydag »

conbandit wrote: post #44
joobus wrote: post #32

Except for stocks, bonds, options, futures, and forex. Wall St is the only authorized online gambling establishment.

While there is some amount of speculation, it represents a small portion of the entire financial space. If you sincerely hold this view, you should take a closer look at the purpose of financial instruments and markets.

Agreed. Like saying financial institutions gamble on lending money to customers.

I think the correct contrast would be legalized state lotteries.

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#48

Post by diminoten »

jarsin wrote: post #27
diminoten wrote: post #23

I see this as a bad thing, but I've still been able to place sports bets in the US online for years, and I logged into ACR today and played an hour of NL holdem, and my computer wasn't seized by the FBI. No one has yet described the actual consequences of this, and as far as I can tell, there haven't been any.

Those offshore sites are scams. The scam is they take your money but if you ever win big you will never see it payed out (deposited in a real bank account belonging to you). You will then become one that post on forums on how you can't get your money out, until they finally close shop and run once enough people have been scammed.

I've been using these sites for years with zero issue...

And plenty of these sites aren't offshore at all, like bovada.

You act like gambling itself isn't a "scam" -- no need to be illegitimate when what you're doing is as insanely profitable as gambling...

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#49

Post by cdumler »

jrockway wrote: post #22
techer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a raffle not gambling out of interest?

How is insurance not gambling?

The purpose of insurance is such that individuals share the burden to cover random, life-impacting events.

From the consumer side, insurance is the purchase of a service to cover any a future debt falling under the category of the service, ie. an unforeseeable, unintentional act of damage by or to the consumer. I have no intention of burning down my house. I pay so that if it were to happen, I am not stuck paying off a house I'll never own.

From the servicer side, it is the sale of a product whereby consumers get covered for unexpected events, yet the company gets a profit for provider the service. Assuming a correct amortization, the company gets a profit.

Re: U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

#50

Post by avar »

joobus wrote: post #32

Except for stocks, bonds, options, futures, and forex. Wall St is the only authorized online gambling establishment.

If you're going to define that as gambling then e.g. buying a house with the intent to flip it on the market is also gambling.
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