Online Gambling
Casinos on the Internet
Online casinos provide a broad range of casino games , including Craps, Blackjack, Roulette and Blackjack. These games are played against house, which can earn you money since the odds are somewhat towards their side. Some websites offer games that are more mathematically honest than they appear.
Poker online
Many online poker rooms offer a variety of Poker games, including Texas hold'em as well as Omaha. The players play against one another while the "house" making money via the "rake".
Betting on sports online
Fixed-odds bets are offered by major bookmakers over the internet. visit this site bet on sporting events.
The bet exchange is a relatively new innovation on the internet. It allows people to place bets against each other, with the "house" taking a small portion.
Transfer of Funds
The majority of gamblers deposit money into an online gambling site before placing bets and participate in the games offered by the site. Then they cash out any winnings. European gamblers typically are able to pay for their gambling accounts using the use of a credit or debit card and then cash out any winnings back to their card.
Due to the unresolved legality of online gambling in America, U.S. credit card applications are often declined. However, many intermediary firms - like Firepay, Neteller, and Moneybookers provide accounts that (among other items) online gaming can be financed. Casino operators and online poker rooms often offer incentives for using these 'alternative payment options'.
Payment by cheque and wire transfer is also a common method of payment.
General legal concerns
Gambling online is legal and licensed in many countries which include the United Kingdom, and many nations around the Caribbean Sea.
The United States Federal Appeals Courts have ruled that the electronic transmission of information for betting on sports across states is not permitted by the Federal Wire Act. There is no law prohibiting gambling of any kind.
Some states have laws against gambling online of any kind. Furthermore, running an online gaming operation without a license is unlawful, and there are no states that have yet granted licenses for online gaming.
The government of the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda that regulates Internet gambling organizations, submitted a complaint to the World Trade Organization about the U.S. government's actions to hinder the online gambling.
While the Caribbean nation won the initial decision, WTO's appeals panel partially overturned the favorable ruling of April 2005. In essence, the appeals decision permitted gambling to be banned within Louisiana, Massachusetts and South Dakota. The appeals panel further concluded that the United States could be violating international trade laws because its laws regarding horse-racing betting weren't equally applicable to both domestic and foreign online gambling companies. The panel also concluded that some online gambling restrictions enforced under US federal laws were inconsistent with the trade organization's GATS services agreement.
John G. Malcolm, deputy Assistant Attorney General was a witness before the Senate Banking Committee in March 2003 regarding the particular challenges that gambling online poses. A major concern of the United States Department of Justice is online money laundering. Transactions involving money laundering online are difficult to track due to the anonymity of the Internet and the encryption.
Google and Yahoo! announced in April 2004 that they were going to remove online gambling advertising from their sites on a totality basis. This announcement came in response to a United States Department of Justice announcement which, according to some consider to be a contradiction to the Appeals Court ruling, the Wire Act relating to telephone betting can be applied to all kinds of Internet gambling and any gambling-related advertising "may" be considered to be aiding or assisting. The Justice Department's move say that there is no legal basis to force companies to eliminate advertisements, and that the advertisements are protected under the First Amendment. As of April 5, 2005, Yahoo! Yahoo! has provided advertisements to online "play money" gaming since April 2005.
In February 2005 the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize and regulate online poker as well as operators of online poker rooms in the State. The chief executive officer of Paradise Poker, an online poker website, testified before the State Senate and promised to relocate to the state if it was passed into law. The measure was rejected by the State Senate in March 2005. Jim Kasper, the Representative who authored the bill, is planning a ballot initiative in 2006 on the subject.
Problem gambling
Gambling online brings gambling into the homes of players which raises concern about the possibility that it will lead to increased problem gambling. In the United States, the link between gambling availability and problematic gambling was investigated in 1999 by the National Gambling Impact Study, which concluded that "the presence of a gambling establishment within 50 miles is roughly equivalent to double the amount of problem and pathological gamblers". If this is the case, it is reasonable to believe that the ease of access to gambling online would be a major factor in the increase of problem gambling.
The report also stated that "high-speed instant gratification provided by Internet games, and their privacy can lead to problems and addiction to gambling." Bernie Horn of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling presented evidence before Congress that online gambling "magnifies" the addictive potential of the addiction.