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Minnesota Orders ISPs to Block Internet Gambling Websites
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), through its Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED), has ordered Internet service providers to block state residents’ access to 200 Internet gambling Web sites. Minnesota referenced a Federal law, the Wire Act of 1961, for justification of its order to the ISPs, claiming the law made “online gambling is illegal in all U.S. states.”
The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA), which was alerted to the blocking order early this morning by a Minnesota reporter seeking comment , immediately set it’s legal team to work challenging the DPS order. iMEGA requested the list of the 200 “black listed” Web sites from DPS, but the request was denied on the advice of DPS counsel, which was apparently debating whether the black list would be made public.
“Again, you have an example of state government exceeding their authority and operating in secret to deny citizens their freedom to use the Internet as they see fit in the privacy of their own homes,” said Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of iMEGA. “What is most concerning is the shaky legal pretext that Minnesota has used to fashion their order. There is simply no Federal law that exists that makes it illegal for all US citizens to gamble on the Internet. None.”
The Wire Act of 1961 made it a criminal offense to use telephones or telegraphs to transmit wagers. Though the US Congress has taken the matter up a number of times, it has never amended the law to include Internet gambling. However, the US Department of Justice has broadly interpreted the Wire Act to proscecute individuals connected to Internet gambling operations in other countries.
A press release from DPS noted that this may only be the beginning of their efforts to block Minnesota residents from accessing certain Website content deemed “illegal” by the state agency, according to DPS director John Willems.
“Acknowledging the effort as an initial sample, Willems anticipates the program expanding to address thousands of sites, depending on compliance. He notes that the required technology to restrict geographic access to particular sites is a relatively straightforward procedure on the part of service providers.”
iMEGA and its legal team, fresh from their Court of Appeals victory blocking the Commonwealth of Kentucky from seizing 141 Internet gambling-related domain names, expressed concern that DPS was signaling a new form of government censorship that would stretch well beyond the Internet gambling sector.
“When Mr. Wilhelm expresses his intention to extend his ‘program’ to thousands of other sites, just what kind of sites will he be targeting?” Brennan asked. “And will he be making the determination which sites are ‘legal’ and which are ‘illegal’? Because as far as we can tell, there is nothing in Minnesota or US Federal law that makes these gaming or any other sites illegal, just their opinion.”
Barney Frank To Propose Online Gambling Regulation Bill Next Week
US Representative Barney Frank has twice pushed back the introduction of his highly-anticipated bill to repeal the UIGEA, but Frank says the bill will be brought before Congress next week. The bill proposing regulation of online gambling in the US was first supposed to be released in March, then after Easter, but now seems imminent.
“We’ll be introducing it next week and I plan to move on it,” Frank told an audience at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit of the measure.
Some observers had speculated that continued financial upheaval would keep Frank and the House Financial Services Committee he chairs too busy to address the Internet gambling issue. A new package including modifications for mortgage laws and a review of predatory credit card company policies are currently before the committee.
But the revenue-producing effects of regulating online poker and Internet casinos keeps the issue topical even during the financial crisis. A PricewaterhouseCooper study said as much as $5 billion annually could be created in US revenues by efficient regulation.
Frank admitted economic crises have kept him tied up, but said the online gambling bill would not be put off again.
Don’t Miss Bodog’s Kentucky Derby Promotion
BoDog has a fantastic Kentucky Derby promotion that will be open to all new and existing players from April 27th to May 4th. By placing a $20, $50, or $100 wager on the Derby, players will receive a free casino chip that corresponds to the amount bet.
Here are the details:
1) Place a bet on the Kentucky Derby to qualify for free casino chips:
• Bet a total of $20 on the Derby, receive $10 free in Casino chips
• Bet a total of $50 on the Derby, receive $25 free in Casino chips
• Bet a total of $100 on the Derby, receive $50 free in Casino chips
2) Players will then receive an email on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 with their casino coupon code.
3) Once players have the code they simply log into their account and redeem the chips.
The landing page for the promotions will be located at: http://www.bodoglife.com/play-now/kderby.html.
Good Luck Everyone!!!
Rick
CSR
DISPUTES DECLINE AT ECOGRA CERTIFIED ONLINE CASINOS, POKER ROOMS AND SPORTSBOOKS
Latest statistics from the Fair Gaming Advocate show that cash-ins are currently the main cause for disputes.
London, 28 April 2009 – Tex Rees, the Fair Gaming Advocate at the independent player protection and standards body eCOGRA, has released the organisation’s first quarter 2009 player disputes report. Rees also reported that total disputes handled in the full year 2008 period were down on the comparative 2007 number at 743 (2007: 783).
The main source of complaints at 73 or fifty percent of disputes involved cash-ins, well ahead of bonus issues which at 27 constituted only 19 percent of valid disputes. Locked account complaints in the quarter reached 30, or 27 percent, also exceeding bonus issues, and there were 15 complaints regarding miscellaneous issues.
Rees received a total of 197 complaints through eCOGRA’s online channel in Q1 2009, rejecting 25 as involving non-eCOGRA accredited operations over which the protection body has no influence. Of the remaining 172, twenty seven complaints were generally abusive or non-specific in nature, rendering same incapable of enquiry.
Rees investigated and mediated the remaining 145 disputes, resolving 59 in favour of the player. An average of 15.1 complaints per week were dealt with within 72 hours by the Fair Gaming Advocate.
“It is interesting to note that the incidence of “locked account” complaints has increased by 4 percent and is greater than “bonus” queries for the first time,” observed Rees. “The indications are that this is due to a growing number of cases where linked accounts were proved (a tactic used by players trying to abuse bonus promotions) and a greater number of fraudulent accounts were discovered.”
The key performance statistic of average number of disputes per accredited operational site per month was again low at 0.36 – down on the average 0.39 recorded throughout 2008.
You are receiving this information based on your past business association with the executive of eCOGRA Limited, or because you have subscribed to receive eCOGRA news. To have your name removed from this list, please email pr@ecogra.org .
Marijuana, Online Gambling Good: Personal Financial Management Bad
If Congressman Barney Frank had his way, online gambling and marijuana would be legalized. However, he would not allow personal freedoms when it comes to one’s own financial decisions.
“I would let people gamble on the Internet,” Frank said. “I would let adults smoke marijuana; I would let adults do a lot of things, if they choose.”
He added: “But allowing them total freedom to take on economic obligations that spill over into the broader society? The individual is not the only one impacted here, when bad decisions get made in the economic sphere, it causes problems.”
CNSNews.com asked Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to respond to criticism from his Republican counterpart on the committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), during a hearing Thursday on the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2009.
Bachus has questioned the perceived heavy handed government oversight.
“If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it,” Bachus had said Thursday during a committee hearing on the bill, referring to people who bought adjustable-rate (ARMs) and other expensive mortgages. “You’re substituting the government’s decision for the individual’s decision in whether they can afford it.”
CNSNews.com asked Frank if Bachus was right–whether Frank’s proposal might undercut personal responsibility and the freedom of individuals to make decisions.
“We’re not just talking individual responsibility,” Rep. Frank answered. “We have a world-wide economic crisis now, because of this. If it were purely individual responsibility, OK, that’s why I disagree with the ranking member.”
Bachus recently proclaimed during a breakfast meeting in his home state of Alabama that there were Socialists in the House. The implication seemed to suggest Barney Frank was one of them, though Bachus did not mention anyone by name.
Bachus is a staunch opponent of online gambling legalization.
Study Finds Video Gaming Far More Addictive Than Online Gambling
Dr. Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, reports in “Psychological Science” that almost ten percent of US youth display addictive tendencies in video gaming, a rate five times that of adults to online gambling.
A scientific study using criteria for diagnosing compulsive gambling has found that an alarmingly high percentage of children are addicted to playing video games. Dr. Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, reports in “Psychological Science” that almost ten percent of US youth display addictive tendencies in video gaming, a rate five times that of adults to online gambling.
Using guidelines established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the Bible of cataloguing disorders, Gentile found that 8.5 percent of children display at least six of eleven possible symptoms of addictive behavior, including poor grades, bad health, attention problems, excessive time spent on gaming, and theft.
The results are consistent with evidence that has shown addiction may be as much to Internet activities overall, as to online casinos, Internet gambling, or other specific behavior. Several surveys have shown proof that Internet addiction can manifest itself at social sites and online shopping sites as well as online gambling sites.
Gentile stressed that the level of addiction discovered is far more than just playing games for a lot of hours.
“What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing — in this case, playing video games — is damaging to their functioning.” the researcher told Medical News Today.
Gentile is also director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family. Some observers were concerned that his connection to a family-advocacy group may lead to calls to ban video games, as other family associations have done for online gambling after finding much less risk of damage.
Gentile did not comment on any efforts to outlaw video gaming, simply asserting the need for more study as to the causes of the behavior.
Bodog Gets Its Domain Name Back
After much chest thumping about how Bodog would never cave into so-called “Patent Trolls”, the company has reportedly gotten its much coveted Bodog.com domain name back.
From Point-Spreads.com:
“The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) acquired many valuable domains – including www.bodog.com – when it recently settled a patent case that had been ongoing in the United States. When asked why the MMGG stepped in, Mr. Alwyn Morris, Chief Executive for the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group noted “While the MMGG was not the judgment debtor, the defendant supplier hadn’t been operational since 2007 and there was therefore simply no possibility of their satisfying the default judgment. We are the exclusive licensee of the ‘Bodog’ brand within the region and so our business was impacted by anything that cast a shadow across the brand. We wanted to remove any residual uncertainty that this case had created, and we wanted to acquire the domains – it was a straightforward business decision.”
The damage is already done, however. Bodog Poker currently ranks as the 15th biggest online poker room, having once sat among the top 10 with a bullet. Bodog lost a significant chunk of their customer base as a result of players unable to find the new domain (BodogLife, which for a brief period of time was NewBodog.com). Bodog also lost all of its search rankings, though the company was able to gain some key rankings back over the past year.
The company was also hit hard by processing issues as well as a seizure of funds by the U.S. Government last year.
Washington State at it again…
Based in Washington State, PRWeb.com, has been ordered to stop promoting online gambling through its press release service this week.
Washington is the only state that makes online gambling a Class C felony for those who actually place bets on the Web. The state passed the law in 2006, mostly under pressure from the land-based casino groups operating in Washington.
PRWeb has long been one of the leading sources for online gambling press releases. Gambling911.com itself has utilized the company’s services with much success.
PRWeb is part of Vocus, a publicly held company that provides on-demand Web-based software for public relations, distributing press releases over the Internet via RSS. Distribution partners include Yahoo! News, Google News, Lycos News, Topix.net, Excite News and eMediaWire.
PRWeb also owns international web sites to distribute press releases in Spanish (Ambos Medios), French, Chinese, and to French-Canadian and English-Canadian markets.
Vocus itself is based out of Maryland.
Internet Gambling Keeps Growing
Small wonder there are US states alarmed by the popularity of Internet gambling; the results of a survey released last week by Frost & Sullivan indicate that lottery sales have the potential to increase by 127 percent, plugging holes in state budgets….but that online gambling could be drawing away up to $7 billion due to its popularity with the punters.
The survey recommends that lotteries need to retain the exisiting player base whilst attracting new blood from younger generations. The Baby Boomer generation and generations before that grew up playing lotteries, but there is an entire – and younger – generation that does not view lottery as a primary form of entertainment. And this younger set may be more active in online gaming for “free,” enjoy virtual experiences on the Internet, and even indulge in online wagering.
Holding existing players could also be under pressure, the survey found. Baby Boomers are passing beyond their primary lottery spending phase as they near retirement. In the United States, peak spending years on lottery games are between the ages of 50 to 64, which means that the mainstay players of lotteries – those who buy the most numbers on a regular basis – could be on the wane.
It is therefore necessary for US lotteries to develop a broader player base using more up-to-date demographics.
Currently, the most frequent (as opposed to biggest spenders) among US lottery players are 35 years of age or older, with 18 to 24 year-olds having the lowest levels of participation. In addition, women generally have lower rates of participation than men. On average, those who play the lottery have been playing for 12.5 years.
A UCLA study of a cross-section of California players showed that 74 percent of total sales for 18 to 24 year-olds was from scratch tickets. In general, as age increased, interest in scratch games decreased and interest in jackpot games increased.
A 2007 survey of 1 000 U.S.online adults showed that 56 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” believe that it is desirable for lottery gaming to be accessed via the Internet.
Overall, Internet gambling is estimated to be about a $15 billion industry worldwide. It is estimated that half of that comes from U.S.players. Although financial transactions with online gambling companies are in general illegal, the numbers show that U.S.players are still participating in widespread Internet wagering. Legalising Internet gaming in the U.S.could raise money, and protect consumers by requiring regulated licensed providers….and lotteries can benefit from actively participating in the national debate regarding legalised US Internet gambling.
The study found that prize payout flexibility has been shown to be a key factor in increasing state lottery per capita participation. Logically, better odds and bigger prizes encourage more lottery participation and increase overall sales.
The state with the highest per capita sales and profits in 2007, Massachusetts, also had the highest prize payout allocation, returning more than 70 percent (significantly higher than the average) of sales to prize money.
When prize payout reforms are implemented along these lines, the results are overwhelmingly positive: In Florida, sales and profits from scratch tickets more than tripled between 2002 and 2006 after legislation was passed to allow the lottery to increase prize payouts. Furthermore, a 2003 study found that a dollar in additional advertising for lotteries was accompanied by an average $56 in additional sales. And in New York, after the lottery boosted prize payouts for scratch tickets during 2000, sales grew by 223 percent over seven years, and profits increased by 257 percent from approximately $188 million to $671 million.
More recently, North Carolina increased prize-payout percentages in 2007, and during July through September of 2008, the lottery transferred $20 million more to state education than for the same period in 2007. Georgia, which has the third highest per capita sales in the nation, also has one of the highest prize payout percentages at 62 percent.
PartyGaming Former Executive Mitch Garber Joins Harrah’s
The move has fueled speculation that Harrah’s will begin offering online poker.
“They won’t in the States yet,” a source tells Gambling911.com. “But trust me, it will happen in the next two years.”
The news comes following PartyGaming’s settlement with U.S. authorities to avoid future prosecution for accepting bets in the States prior to passage of an online gambling prohibition, the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
PartyGaming has agreed to pay $105 million over four years as part of the non-prosecution agreement.
“The settlement with the DoJ is better than we expected both in terms of the size of the settlement and payment structure. The settlement with the DoJ should mark a point of inflection for the group which can look forward without being anchored by the past,” said KBC Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram.
CSR Approved Casinos
