US Congress Bans Online Poker

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief October 3, 2006 · 1 min read

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From ABC News — online gaming firms faced their biggest-ever crisis on Monday after U.S. Congress passed legislation to end Internet gaming there, threatening jobs and wiping 3.5 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) off share prices.

For the past couple of months, I’ve been getting calls from companies in China ordering over a dozen dedicated servers for online gambling use. They stress that the servers must be in the Philippines and not the US. I’m not really familiar with US laws regarding this issue and I wasn’t comfortable with the setup.

Along with hosting adult content, online gambling is also a lucrative niche in the hosting industry. Still, I don’t think I can stomach providing hosting services with such niches.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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16 Comments

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Andy Michaels’ Blog on Internet Marketing and Online Success · 18 years ago

I like the look and sound of this. Knowing that you are behind this Jason gives me the reassurance that it will fly. Too many fly by nighters have come and gone trying to invent the next big thing. Iâ€™ m going to sign up with dealdotcom now and tell my list about it tonight.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 20 years ago

Yeah, Dave, the industry is too big and widespread that this development won’t make a dent. They can always look for alternatives.

Dave Starr · 20 years ago

@ Migs … most likely is very conservative motivated. It was passed in a sneaky way attaching it to an important port security bill so if a congress person didn’t vote down Internet payments he/she also voted against security. Typical maneuvering.

The Republicans have very little to crow about with the mess we are in n Iraq … makes Vietnam almost look smart, and with a now widespread cover up of illegal children on line sex scandals coming out in the heart of Republican territory Bush needs something non-controversial.

As I posted earlier, ABC didn’t report the issue very well, just tried to make it sound good.

According to an online friend who makes a lot of money on the non-operations side of Internet poker
http://www.tylercruz.com/?p=159
there is not going to be much impact on the industry … just on voters who don’t comprehend the ‘Net.

Dave Starr · 20 years ago

Actually the US congress didn’t vote to end Internet gaming in the US, it has been illegal in the US for years. Congress voted a bill (which Dubya is expected to quickly sign) that will make it illegal for US banks and credit card companies to pay Internet gambling sites located outside the US … so the Chinese businessman leasing a gaming server in Manila can’t get a US Visa merchant account to collect his/her profits.

Unlike ABC’s lightweight assessment I don’t think this is going to eliminate the 6.5 billion USD industry, it will just add some sort of bump in the road. There have been other payment obstacles in recent years but most big gaming sites have found ways around them. Many US cards already refused on their own to pay gaming or porn sites.

Mostly this action is election grandstanding (less than a month ’til US midterm elections) and an attempt to draw attention of the voters away from the US’s deadly fiasco in Iraq and the US Congress’s child molestation cover ups … see how moral we are? We solicit teens for sex in the halls of Congress, but we aren’t going to let you play poker, nope that would be sinful.

Or, such is Dave’s US citizen opinion anyway.