Online Gambling

In the United States of America, the Wire Act doesn't allow the use of a wired transmission to place bets or to transfer information that will assist in placing a bet on the territory of the United States. Also it is forbidden the wired communication that is the subject of sending and receiving money or credit as a result of a wager. The punishment for gambling online should be a fine or up to two years of prison.

As a result of the Wire Act, the banks blocked the credit card transactions that were designated with the purpose of gambling online. Also some online financial services stopped processing transactions with such destination, whilst the main search engines, Yahoo and Google stopped receiving advertisement for gambling online.

The measures look useless because now there are thousands of gambling websites that operate outside United States and most of them accept different online or offline payment methods, not requiring the use of credit card anymore. The other problems like underage gambling, money laundering or fraud could not be solved also.

After attacking Antigua and Barbuda's legalization of online gambling, the United States faced the reaction of the World Trade Organization which ruled that U.S. prohibition for gambling online discriminates the global trade rules. WTO advised that the government should focus on the taxation and the regulation, enforcing the limits for gambling online.

For more reading:
Bonuses of the Online Gambling
Information resources for gambling online