It’s been over a year since the U.S., in its war against online sin, clamped down on online gambling by making it illegal for credit card companies to interact with online, international betting.
I was reminded as this as I pondered my current trip to Las Vegas, in which I’ve had to explain a couple of times why I haven’t gambled while here — namely, that pure games of chance in casinos hold almost no interest in me, because I’m all-too-aware of how the odds work, and that games where skill comes into play, I’m too cheap to develop those skills.
I suppose that playing cheap games online would be one way to gain that skill (aside from the risk of having to play bots, and the likelihood that skillful players would be drawn to higher stakes games than I’m interested in). But our elected nannies in Washington have made such educational opportunities rather difficult.
Thus, I started wondering — what if brick-and-mortar casinos set up relationships with the online gambling operations, with restrictions set up to control the abuses feared by the powers that be, etc.
So, I found it ironic that when I switched over to recreational surfing this evening, while killing time at the airport (free wi-fi, and available electrical outlets if you know where to look; woo-hoo!), I encountered (via Slashdot) this iTnews article describing one potential reaction to the U.S.’s puritanical stance:
The disputed concessions arise from Antigua’s victory earlier this year when the WTO ruled that the US violated its treaty obligations by excluding online Antiguan gaming operators, while allowing domestic operators to offer various forms of online gaming.
Instead of complying with the ruling, the Bush administration withdrew the sizeable gambling industry from its free trade commitments.
As a result, all 151 WTO members are considering seeking compensation for the withdrawal equal to the size of the entire US land-based and online gaming market, estimated at nearly US$100 billion.
I suppose that we should be thankful that the dollar isn’t worth what it once was.
Somehow, I suspect our fearless leaders will choose to ignore the threat somehow.
