Bet From Anywhere Blog

The struggle over the controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) continues. Late last month, H.R. 5767, which blocked implementation of the UIGEA, was defeated in the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.

Meanwhile, a new bill related to online gambling was introduced this week by U.S. Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash. H.R. 6501 amends the Social Security Act to establish a trust fund from the proceeds of taxing Internet gambling. The trust fund would be used to provide education, job training, public-transit subsidies and other services to individuals in foster care or in declining sectors of the economy. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means and Committee on Education and Labor. [Read more →]

Tags:   Barney Frank · HR5767 · hr6501 · james mcdermott · peter king · ron paulNo Comments.

We really can’t wait for someone to turn around and use this as proof of while online gambling is bad for the world:

The high alert is aimed at big-time gamblers and the tennis pros who they are increasingly trying – sometimes successfully – to corrupt.

Coincident with opening day for the grass-court extravaganza, there are plans to announce strict new anti-corruption rules, involving fines and suspensions. Red flags have been raised repeatedly in recent years, with a resulting investigation revealing that at least 45 matches, including several at Wimbledon, are regarded as highly suspicious.

Significantly, it was British bookmakers who raised the alarm, as they noticed spikes in money bet for certain otherwise unexceptional matches. Tennis in general has begun to attract enormous betting interest, ranking behind only soccer and racing in the U.K. One online book alone says it took more than $1 billion (Canadian) in Wimbledon bets last year.

Such vasts sums are bound to attract sophisticated criminal interest. Whether such interests have been there all along or not is open to question, but fixing has been a problem in all of sports dating back to the very beginning. [Read more →]

Bookmark or Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Tags:   gambling · tenisNo Comments.

Gambling for free on the Internet has become the most popular gambling activity among youths in Oregon, according to a new survey. That concerns officials who say it introduces teenagers to gambling and grooms them for other forms in which money is waged.”You’re learning that gambling is fun, it’s stimulating, and it’s risk-free,” said Wendy Hausotter, problem gambling prevention coordinator with Oregon Department of Human Services. “That’s not true at all.” The survey, commissioned by DHS last year, found that 33 percent of youths ages 12 to 17 — an estimated 94,659 teens — gamble online for free.

It’s an activity that is convenient and easily accessible, officials say, because it can be done at home at any time, often under no supervision from parents. Its novelty, high level of stimulation and low level of physical exertion also appeal to youths, many of whom are tech-savvy. [So lazy kids sit in front of the computer all day and happen to play poker? What if the parents forced them to go outside? Scary idea.-Editor] [Read more →]

Bookmark or Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Tags:   · free online gambling · fud · study · teenageNo Comments.

With Internet gambling predicted to surpass $20 billion in 2008, and with illegal wagering accounting for $150 billion in the United States, by some estimates, the temptation for those seeking to influence the outcome of games has never been greater. Now, a raft of gambling scandals in sports, from cricket to soccer and most recently tennis, has raised an uncomfortable question: Are the games we watch fixed?

NYTimes is running an interesting article about how some internet gambling companies alert the sports leagues when they see irregular betting patterns on their sport games. [Read more →]

Tags:   irregular bets · sports gamblingNo Comments.

PokerPages has found an interesting lawsuit that was filed by Public Citizen to force US Trade Office to release details of WTO internet gambling deal. According to the lawsuit, the Bush administration is illegally withholding the details of its offer accepted by the European Union to bind more sectors of the U.S. economy to World Trade Organization (WTO) jurisdiction as part of a settlement relating to a WTO ruling against the U.S. ban on Internet gambling.

In December, the USTR provided a hint at the scope of the deals by revealing that they involved new U.S. WTO commitments for “warehousing services, technical testing services, research and development services and postal services relating to outbound international letters.” [Read more →]

Tags:   european union · foia · ustr · WTONo Comments.