Volokh.com - Law Professors' Views on UIGEA

[Catt]

The UIGEA is what it is -- I'm not terribly interested in the debate. But I know that some are intensely interested. I thought I'd pass along an interesting exchange between some prominent law professors who blog regularly on a vairety of subjects.

The Volokh Conspiracy is a popular legal issues-oriented blog started by Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA, with numerous other law professors who regularly post there. The blog tends towards the right politically, or more accurately towards a libertarian right, and includes regular contributions from a number of different law professors from a variety of US law schools on a wide range of subjects (most focused on legal issues, particularly first amendement issues). Most if not all of the contributors are pretty savvy technically, and there's usually lots of interesting insights into how the law is or should be dealing with technology's impact on existing legal principles.

One contributor, David Post (a law prof at Temple's law school), blogged on the UIGEA, with an intro that began "Hello, I'm David, and I'm an internet gambler." Note: prop bet included in post. He also posts an update - which appears as a new post. A second contributor, Orin Kerr (a law prof at George Washington University) makes some counterarguments to Post's views.

As I said, I'm not terribly captivated by the legal issues or practical changes we're all experiencing with the passage of the legislation, but thought others might find the discussion interesting.

You can find the blog at Volokh.com

Mods - I have no connection with the Volokh website (except as a regular reader) and will certainly not profit in any way from traffic that goes there.

Edit: Part of the reason for this post is that the blog oftentimes generates multiple posts in a back-and-forth fashion when one contributor disagrees with another. I linked to the blog in general rather than specific posts because I would not be at all surprised to see the UIGEA debated in the coming days between the two posters already writing, and wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see other contributors join the discussion.

[pifhluk]

Good read, took a few clicks to find it though.

[Phil153]

Great post, here are the relevant links for the lazy:

Original Post: Hello I'm David and I'm an Internet Gambler
Detailed response to above
Further thoughts from David

[blueodum]

Say that Vermont passes a law saying that it is legal to gamble over the Internet. I could then open up a bank account in Vermont; when the offshore gambling site gets my inquiry to set up an account, I can transfer money from my Vermont account -- not illegal! -- to the gambling site, and vice versa.

This would be the easiest way to circumvent the practical aspects of this law. Have one state explicitly legalize online gaming. Thus, every bank licensed in that state will be able to do business with the gaming sites - directly. And presumably, it will not be difficult for any US resident to set up an electronic bank account in that state, even from out of state.