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USA Steps Closer to China North Korea Iran With New Legislation

United States Representative James Leach, a Republican from Iowa, has sponsored a piece of legislation that is being debated on grounds of censorship, civil liberties, morality and many other fronts.



The legislation entitled, H.R. 4411 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, amends the federal criminal code to prohibit persons engaged in the business of betting or wagering from knowingly accepting credit, electronic fund transfers, checks, drafts, or similar instruments, or the proceeds of any other financial transaction in connection with unlawful Internet gambling.



The Act directs the Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to prescribe regulations to identify and block restricted transactions and transmissions of wagering information. It also grants financial organizations immunity from civil liability for blocking transactions which they reasonably believe are restricted.



The Act passed on July 11, 2006 by recorded vote: 317 - 93 (Roll no. 363).



The Concern

While many Americans don'st gamble online, H.R. 4411 is causing grave concern to many as it allows the government to tell the American public how to spend money on the internet, making it illegal on restricted web sites. Most importantly, it opens the door to the precedent of allowing the government to regulate and censor web content the American can view.



Freedom of speech and expression on the internet could take a turn for the worse, mirroring other countries that regulate and censor web-content to their citizens like the hard-line dictatorships of North Korea, Iran and China.



The Paradox

To the big casinos like, 888.com and partypoker.com H.R. 4411 means one thing, fewer customers.



With an estimated fifty percent of all online gamblers residing in the United States, casinos could lose millions of players and billions in revenue.



But while the authorities try to squash online gambling in the USA it is becoming ever more popular as a form of entertainment on American television.



Ten years ago professional poker players were just gamblers, going through the motions of poker in their own established circles outside the eye of the mainstream.



Now, that'ss all changed. Today you can watch such events as The World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker on CBS and ESPN and see your favorite poker players in everything from beer commercials to the promotion of online gaming sites.



While gambling is supposed to be illegal and even 'sdangerous's according to many experts, American television networks glorify the poker player, giving birth to a new kind of glamour and celebrity. Even the likes of super star actors Ben Affleck and Tom Everett Scott have tried their hands at its allure. (But in all fairness Tom Everett Scott placed a remarkable 3rd in the World Poker Tour of 2003, beating some of the most renowned poker players in the world.)



As it becomes more and more illegal, it seems to have become more and more fashionable. Several times a week the American youth can turn on the TV and watch hundreds of thousands of dollars being won and lost on a single hand.



How will this affect the new hybrids of the gaming world that have popped up to continually push the evolution of entertainment on the internet



The Fine-Line

Wager Island (www.wagerisland.com), Entropia (www.entropia.com) and the Multi-Player Role Playing Game, while very different from each other and from traditional gambling sites, still run on money and employ their own versions of a virtual economy, where money is traded for profit or loss.



Entropia and Wager Island consider themselves entertainment portals that offer a virtual world as their service, the end result being that you either amass more money than you started with or you lose more.



Where does the US government draw the line

The fate of H.R. 4411 is now in the hands of the Senate. Many feel that the popularity the bill received in the Congress could mean only one thing, that the Senate too will pass it. But then remember, the Congress also impeached President Bill Clinton.

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