Online poker is illegal, but so is jaywalking
Online poker has created a multi million dollar industry and tons of money is changing hands each and every day.
A lot of people are playing poker on the Internet, but it does not mean that the authorities like it. Online gambling is still illegal in the United States. Estimations say that 70 percent of online gamblers are American, but still investment companies are forced to set up sites from shell locations like Costa Rica, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.
In Europe the question of online gambling is more complicated. Many poker rooms operate from of the U.K. and in Sweden the state run company Svenska Spel recently started its own online poker room. But most European countries still consider online gambling to be illegal. Italy has pushed the issue the farthest and the country recently started to block Internet domains belonging to online gambling companies.
While it is technically illegal for Americans to play the game, the gambling industry does not seem that worried about the authorities cracking down on individual players. The law regulating online gambling is more than four decades old and specifically forbids gambling over the telephone, which was later interpreted to include the Internet.
There are lawmakers who have advocated a tougher stance on online gambling lately. A recent bill in the U.S. House of Representative is seeking to forbid U.S. citizens from making credit card payments to off shore gambling sites. Attempts like this one have not gained much momentum yet. But nothing is indicating a liberalization of the law either and it does not seem likely that any companies will be setting up online gambling operations on U.S. soil any time soon.
Provided by Pokerlistings.com
