Black Monday

It's a potentially sad day for those that enjoy gaming through offshore sports books and betting houses. In a news story released this morning, on Wednesday, President Bush is expected to sign a bill to prevent Internet gambling. This new bill makes it illegal for financial institutions and credit card companies to process payments to settle internet bets. From what I have gathered by reading excerpts of the bill and what experts had to say about the bill, this is not the end-all, be-all to internet gambling for this year, but it does create some difficult obstacles. First, financial institutions have 9 months to comply with the new regulations. So some financial institutions might comply right away and others might take their time to comply. Second, receiving payouts should not be an issue. The offshore gaming sites (poker and sports included) are for the most part reputable companies. They are not going to run and pocket your money and I do not think that cutting checks from their financial institutions actually breaks any laws. If I had an account with an offshore book, I wouldn't worry about immediately withdrawing my money. Finally, this law has the potential to spring up new "illegal" sports books all over the U.S. These books present much larger problems than the offshore books and are often where young college age gamblers run into trouble because betting with these "local" books often does not require any capital to be paid up front. It's much easier to get yourself into a hole when nothing has actually left your pocket.