Interpreting HR4411

[LinusKS]

From "Definitinos."

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`(A) IN GENERAL- The term `unlawful Internet gambling' means to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by any means which involves the use, at least in part, of the Internet where such bet or wager is unlawful under any applicable Federal or State law in the State or Tribal lands in which the bet or wager is initiated, received, or otherwise made.

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All internet gambling in the US is "unlawful," and falls under this definition. Unless or until some internet site obtains a license from some US state, it is, has been, and will continue to be, "unlawful."


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MONEY TRANSMITTING BUSINESS AND MONEY TRANSMITTING SERVICE- The terms `money transmitting business' and `money transmitting service' have the same meanings as in section 5330(d)

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I haven't bothered to read section 5330(d), but I'll go out on a limb and predict Neteller, Firepay, etc., are all "money transmitting services." They are not, however, located within the US.

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Sec. 5363. Prohibition on acceptance of any financial instrument for unlawful Internet gambling

`No person engaged in the business of betting or wagering may knowingly accept, in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling-- [money].

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This says PS, Party, and the rest are breaking the law by taking your money. There were already breaking US law by taking your money, however. Whether this new, additional law will stop them is up to them. I'm not them, so I can't predict. I'm guessing, however, that it won't stop them, any more than the old laws did.

Note: this proposed law - and every anti-gambling Federal criminal law (of which there are several) - applies to gambling businesses, not to customers, punters, banks, ISPs, gamblers, whatever.



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`Sec. 5364. Policies and procedures to identify and prevent restricted transactions

`(a) Regulations- Before the end of the 270-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this subchapter, the Secretary, in consultation with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Attorney General, shall prescribe regulations requiring each designated payment system, and all participants therein, to identify and prevent restricted transactions through the establishment of policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify and prevent restricted transactions in any of the following ways:

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This section requires the Federal Reserve System and the AG to come up with some regulations for banks that are supposed to "identify and prevent restricted transaction."

It's important to note, that this section requires US institutions to comply with regulations that have not yet been drafted, and that the penalties (if any) are entirely civil. In other words, they're saying, "Some other guys (not us) are going to come up with some easy-to-follow instuctions, and as long as you comply, you're off the hook. Nothing bad can happen to you." Furthermore, they're saying, "If you don't comply, we'll go to court and ask a judge to tell you that you have to."


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Sec. 5366. Criminal penalties

`(a) In General- Whoever violates section 5363 shall be fined under title 18, or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.

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Section 5363 is the section that makes it a crime for gambling sites to take Americans' money. Again, it doesn't make it a crime for Americans to gamble, or to send money to poker sites, or to send money to Neteller.

Also, please note, all the provisions that could potentially apply to American businesses are located in sections 5364 and 5365 ("Civil Remedies"), NOT 5363.


To sum up, the bill makes it a crime to do something that is already illegal, and that's only done by companies that have carefully removed themselves from US jurisdiction.

And it says that somebody (not Congress) is going to come up with an easy way for banks and ISPs to keep you from gambling on the internet, even though (to my knowledge) there's no easy way to do that.

If someone with more technical knowledge could explain it to me, I'd appreciate it. But to my understanding there's no way anybody can keep track of where everybody's going on the internet, and there's no way for your bank to know what you're going to do with your money, once you've transferred it to a third party.

All this goes to the heart of the internet gambling problem. The US is not about to give up its right to conrol/regulate/tax and license gambling within its borders. BUT, there's no EASY way to stop it.

Unless the government is prepared to send the troops to Gibraltar, or to start arresting American citizens, or to shut down half the internet, I don't know what they can do.

And this bill doesn't appear to contemplate doing any of these things.