Gamblers who prefer their laptops to blackjack tables won’t like what Congress is doing. On Tuesday, the House plans to vote on a bill that would ban credit cards for paying online bets and could padlock gambling Web sites.
The legislation would clarify existing law to spell out that it is illegal to gamble online.
To enforce that ban, the bill would prohibit credit cards and other payment forms, such as electronic transfers, from being used to settle online wagers. It also would give law enforcement officials the authority to work with Internet providers to block access to gambling Web sites.
Some opponents of the legislation say policing the Internet is impossible, that it would be better to regulate the $12 billion industry and collect taxes from it. The online gambling industry is based almost entirely outside the United States, though about half its customers live in the U.S.
If ANYONE is going to take our money dammit….it’s the government! Noone else shall get it!
What we do in our homes is our business NOT theirs.
Kind of scary to think you could wake up one day and piss away a lifetime of work and savings before you get coffee.