Reasonable Regulatory Matrix.

[oldbookguy]

Thank you my friends, we were waiting for one daughter (wifes0 to arrive from out of town for the dinner.
As to sports betting, they really have to support the case in St. Louis and hope that Charming Bestsy thing works out since SB is only allowed in what, 2 states, Nevada and a limited game ran in state only in Washington?

Not much market there. And really, same for the Horse Wagering, that is only allowed in I believe, 7 states.

Games as Contests, 39 & D.C., market access.

obg

[Legislurker]

[ QUOTE ]
There will have to be mechanisms to track money as it flows and transfers around the online gaming economy.

We tend to obsess about the social injustice and hypocrisy of anti-online gaming arguments (addictive, destructive, immoral, exploitative of children). But perhaps the most effective argument that can be made to sway legislators to oppose online gaming centers around the "opportunities for terrorist financing." Remember, UIGEA was slipped into the Port Security Act for this very reason -- "we must protect our borders."

It's unlikely any legislation will pass that legalizes online gaming without including strict guidelines for monitoring money and the various ways it can be laundered.

Sites today have limited interest in self-regulation with respect to chip dumping (esp. HU). And who knows what kind of transfers NETeller was allowing.

It's these large sums of money flying around (going where?? to whom???) that scares the US gov't the most. All the rest of their shit is moral window dressing. Surely, some politicians actually believe the drivel rolling off their lips. The rest just drum up some reasons to support what their big campaign donors told them to think.

[/ QUOTE ]

Transactions to gaming sites are a blip on the radar, if that. Massive amounts of money fly from worldwide OFCs, AND most terrorist financing flows thru their own system of local bankers(Hawala). Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai are all huge financial centres. Bahrain has more traditional Islamic finacing. Im really at a loss how an effective worldwide terrorist network can use gaming AND ONLY gaming to transfer money. Western Union from a fake ID to a fake ID is a whole lot easier and cheaper. Terrorist financing is a buzzword to make idiots shut their mouths and say, oh its a good thing if it stops it. The only "terrorist" money the Feds can really stop are the bank accounts Iran and North Korea have with more established banks.

[yahboohoo]

Many (most?) U.S. laws have little to do with what actually happens, but rather what could happen.

It doesn't really matter if terrorist money has been transfered using online gaming vehicles. What is important is that the U.S. gov't believes it's possible.

Was terrorist money transfered around places like NETeller and poker sites? I dunno, but I doubt it. Was it possible? Hell yeah. Chip dump. P2Ps. Gift cards. You name it. Across international boundaries. Washed at least twice.

Person A dumps $100,000 to Person B in a headsup NL poker game.
Person B vouchers/transfers it to Person C within the poker site.
Person C withdraws to NETeller.
Person C makes transfers/P2Ps to Person D within NETeller.
Person E uses Person D's NETeller debit card.

(Quite frankly, that's way more complicated than necessary. Before this year, miscreants could just keep all their transactions on NETeller.)

Terrorists washing money? Probably not. Drug dealers and other criminal types? Sure, for medium-sized transactions -- I could see that.

Edit: Typo.

[CPOSteve]

Some of you are thinking too big. This isn't about washing or transferring hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. It's about a foot soldier getting the $250 he needs to buy a plane ticket or rent a car or whatever. Those things are clearly possible and easy to do via a gambling site...and also very hard/impossible to track.

Do I think it happens? I honestly don't know, but it appears from reading some other forums that several sites have started to get very interested in people who make a lot of transfers; especially to people who move the money off the site soon thereafter. Now the obvious reason they would do this is they are losing the money from the site. The less obvious reason is they don't want to open a potential investigative door.

Steve

[DeadMoneyDad]

[ QUOTE ]
Some of you are thinking too big. This isn't about washing or transferring hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. It's about a foot soldier getting the $250 he needs to buy a plane ticket or rent a car or whatever. Those things are clearly possible and easy to do via a gambling site...and also very hard/impossible to track.

Do I think it happens? I honestly don't know, but it appears from reading some other forums that several sites have started to get very interested in people who make a lot of transfers; especially to people who move the money off the site soon thereafter. Now the obvious reason they would do this is they are losing the money from the site. The less obvious reason is they don't want to open a potential investigative door.

Steve

[/ QUOTE ]

A few c-notes in a greeting card seems much easier to me.

But what the hell do I know,


D$D