While Senator Bob Goodlatte's online casino sites prohibition bill continues to be discussed in industry circles, no less than three separate bills aiming to ban U.S. online casino sites fans from gambling at offshore sites are being considered by Congress. The main argument put forth by the sponsors of the various bills are the increasing levels of underage gambling and compulsive gambling they claim take place at online casino sites.
Online casino sites are banned from operating domestically in the U.S., so the multi billion-dollar industry provides gambling services to American casino players from a variety of international locations. Most online casino fans now use online payment services also based overseas to manage their transactions to casinos. Indeed, one of the proposed bills currently under consideration by Congress seeks to prevent the proliferation of online casino sites by outlawing financial institutions from processing payments to gaming sites.
While the bills' advocates claim that online casino sites disadvantage regulated, taxed and legal gambling establishments, the language and terminology used in the bills has proved highly controversial. Advocates of online casino sites claim exemptions made in the bills are hypocritical and reveal how powerful land-based gambling groups manage to influence legislators to protect their own interests. |
