Senate Targets Internet Gambling Ban as Top PriorityWritten by Rosalind Gardner on September 9, 2006 · Comments (0) |
Back on July 17th, David Carruthers, CEO of BetOnSports.com, was detained while on a layover in Dallas, TX. The company subsequently stopped taking bets and Carruthers is currently under house arrest in St. Louis awaiting trial.
I was just wrapping up a presentation to take to next week’s Casino Affiliate Convention in Las Vegas, when more bad news broke on the Internet gambling scene.
On September 7th, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist targeted a ban on Internet gambling as a top priority for the U.S. Senate. U.S. Lawmakers are pushing for change, including a proposed law to prohibit U.S. bank and credit transactions with online gambling operations.
Also on Thursday, Peter Dicks, U.K.-based Sportingbet PLC Chairman was arrested at J.F.K. airport for contraventing LA R.S. 14:90.3(E), a law that prohibits “gambling by computer”. The felony is punishable by up to five years year in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Dicks made bail on Friday and is fighting extradition charges to Louisiana. Louisiana is one of eight states, including Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, South Dakota and Washington have laws that prohibit online gambling.
The law applies to anyone who “designs, develops, manages, supervises, maintains, provides, or produces any computer services, computer system, computer network, computer software, or any server providing a Home Page, Web Site, or any other product accessing the Internet, World Wide Web, or any part thereof offering to any client for the primary purpose of the conducting as a business of any game, contest, lottery, or contrivance whereby a person risks the loss of anything of value in order to realize a profit.“.
How does this news affect gaming affiliates?
Just ask those affiliates who were promoting BetOnSports.com products at the time that it closed. BetOnSports.com’s players have not yet been re-imbursed.
Sportingbet also operates affiliate programs. Although Sportingbet remains open at the moment, will they be the next to go?
I don’t know. However, I may take a little time today to beef up the ‘need to diversify’ portion of my CAC talk.
Cheers ~ Ros
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