News & Updates 27/5/11
May 26 | Posted by admin | News Tags: domain seizure, fly-in, illegal, john pappas, legalisation, maryland, poker, ppa, protectionism, think of the children, washintonMaryland Puts A Stop To The Fun
The state of Maryland has been flexing its muscles in the past week as no fewer than ten domain names have been seized by the state attorney there. These include bookmaker.com, 2betsdi.com. funtimebingo.com, goldenarchcasino.com, doylesroom.com, beted.com, betehorse.com, betgrandesports.com, truepoker.com and betmaker.com.
Following the naming of April 15th as Black Friday it seems appropriate to call this latest day of gloom Miserable Monday or something similar. What prompted this action then? It all appears to be based on Maryland’s opposition to gambling or, as they call it, illegal gambling. Legislation being used against the websites is similar to that leveraged in the Black Friday cases, namely wire fraud, money laundering and offences connected with the depositing of money at online casinos.
The domains have been seized because the headquarters of the operations are outside the United States and Maryland also seems to believe that those pesky foreigners (who may just be Americans operating outside the country) are using proceeds for nefarious activities. Homeland Security spokesman William Winter actually used the words…
“The proceeds from illegal Internet gambling are often used to fuel organized crime and support criminal activity“
….while keeping a straight face. It’s all a bit reminiscent of ‘won’t somebody please think of the children’ and does nothing to dispel the suspicion that this is just more American protectionism. Any future federal legislation will almost certainly specify that online operators must have unblemished criminal records and a cynic might suggest that this latest effort is an attempt to remove any dodgy foreigners from the arena before that happens.
New Poker Players Alliance Rally
On a slightly brighter note the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) held another rally in Washington last Tuesday, again attempting to meet with and persuade various senators and congressman that federal legalisation is the way forward.
The turnout was slightly smaller than the previous rally but a decent number still turned up to support the cause. A bill sponsored by Republican congressman Joe Barton will shortly be introduced and Barton and fellow Republican John Campbell addressed supporters outside the Capitol building.
Tags: domain seizure, fly-in, illegal, john pappas, legalisation, maryland, poker, ppa, protectionism, think of the children, washinton
