Would this be a legal loophole?

[Squarehoop1]

Let's say I open a bank account in a gambling friendly country, such as Antigua. I would be pretty confident the US would have trouble in stopping me from sending money to or receiving money from my offshore account (as long as I declare the account and profits I may make to the IRS). Then I could theoretically make withdrawls and deposits to the poker sites from this account as they are not restricted by the US law only US banking institutions are (as I understand it).

So, tricky part is would an ISP who allowed me to access Neteller's (or whoever's) offshore web site be libel? If not, then it seems to me the combination of all these sites could find plenty of banks in various countries who would be drooling at the opportunity to set up some bank accounts for Americans.

A reasonable increase in complexity from today, but with the internet I am sure that the money transfer guys could work out a way to make it all very very easy. Actually it doesn't seem that much harder then opening up a poker account today.

I suspect the US would try to stop the ISPs from allowing access to the bank, but I doubt that would be legal since offshore banks are allowed to do business here. The US would have trouble getting the records showing that the accounts were just for gambling as long as the bank had normal interests beyond this. And if they suspected it there would probably not be much they could do about it anyway as they don't have jurisdiction.

So, that would leave the US down to trying to arrest the player, or threatening the ISPs. However, the ISP would probably be safe because all they allow access to is the offshore banks site (which you would be legally allowed to do). If the offshore banks network allowed you to transfer on to Neteller (or fill out a form to forward to Neteller), that would not be within the ISPs control. And going after the player is dangerous territory for a politician.

Not sure if this is money laundering (not sure how it could be if you let the IRS know about your offshore account, which you are supposed to), but this seems feasible to me. Sounds complicated, but I think in the end it is just a little fancy internet banking.

Any thoughts?

btw, glad I am living in the UK at the moment.

[vabogee]

maybe i'm missing something, but what do the ISPs have to do with it?

[Squarehoop1]

The ISPs would want to avoid prosecution under the old wire act which makes it illegal to facilitate a gambling transaction (originally over the phone, but likely would apply to the internet).

[gulon]

How about peer-to-peer poker?

[brizzology]

Peer-to-peer, or proxies, don't look like they will circumvent the law. Check page 227, "Intermediate Routing". It basically says that any proxy used won't determine where the wager has been initiated or received. So, you're still placing a wager from your home state, which doesn't allow online gambling, and you'd be breaking the law.

I would think the same would hold true if you go through all the international bank trickery, and continue to place wagers from inside the US.

[Squarehoop1]

Only true if it is illegal for me to be a player and wager maker, which most posts I have seen do not believe to be true. So, the people actually breaking the law are the offshore bank and offshore IT routers (neither of which are likely to be afraid of US intervention). I doubt the politicians really want to come after the player as that looks far too much like big brother. So, the trick to circumventing the law is to have payment processors and communications providers who are outside of the jurisdiction of the law. Hopefully, by the time the US might get brave enough to come after the players the gaming industry will have developed enough lobbying effort to fight them off.