Online Gambling - and Casino Info

Ireland’s Online Gambling Hopes and the United States Connection

At a time when many countries in the world are closing their doors to online casinos (the United States and Argentina come to mind as two large countries that are currently taking or have taken in the past actions to ban online gambling), there are still some countries out there that would like a chance at seeing what they can do with this particular source of gaming revenue. The country of Ireland is one such country and all indications appear to be that the country is going to take one giant step to the left in its political outlook through two actions they are planning to take regarding online gambling.

The first is not an action for online gambling actually, but there is a very important indirect relationship involved. This action involves the nationalization of all casinos within the borders of the country and subsequent regulation of the casinos so that they conform to government standards. At the same time the government is going to be doing this, it also appears as though the government of Ireland is warming up to the idea of drawing online gambling operations to their shores. If the plan is successful, it could see many of the world’s biggest online gambling operations, now situated in areas of the world such as South America, jump ship and move to the shores of a country whose reputation is much larger in the world stage.

According to most analysts within the industry, the main push behind both of these moves is coming from an organization known as The Gaming and Leisure Association of Ireland. This association jump-started both campaigns through circulating a petition and then presenting that petition to the government. The regulations and legislation that will be coming out of the Irish legislature appear to be very blatantly aimed at making Ireland the next major base of operations for online gambling operations. According to the cost-benefit analysis of the situation that was done by the academics involved in this particular operation, a successful endeavor would create at least 10,000 new jobs in Ireland while at the same time generating the government an additional $68 million in annual revenue. At a time when the world’s economy is about as uncertain as it has been in a generation, such a move could bring about a stabilizing influence at least insofar as the government is concerned.

While this is all happening in Ireland, people in the United States are watching with interest. There are even some politicians in the country that are taking a closer look despite having signed onto the bill passed in 2006 that effectively ended all online gambling in the country. With the United States in terrible economic shape, it appears as though the positive economic impact of the legalization of online gambling is starting to be seriously considered once again. It would not be the first time that monetary concerns caused politicians to flip flop in the country and for that reason the whole world seems to be watching Ireland to see how the experiment unfolds.

Microgaming, one of the most respected online gambling companies in the history of the industry, has just announced that they will be terminating their contract with the online gambling establishment Gutshot Poker. Gutshot Poker was a gambling club turned into an online gambling website, both of which specialized in various forms of poker. Up until the current moment in time Gutshot Poker had been in a partnership with Microgaming and because of that had been a member of the Microgaming/Prima Poker Network. Now that Microgaming has officially removed Gutshot Poker from its network however, the website has moved from Microgaming to the Cake Poker Network, where it is expected it will remain at least for the near future.

The series of events that led up to this particular bit of news is quite lengthy and the best place to begin would be January 16, 2007. The owner of the offline Gutshot Poker Club, a man named Derek Kelly, was arrested by the authorities of the United Kingdom for alleged transgressions against the Gaming Act. According to Derek Kelly, the transgressions were perfectly applicable to the setting because he contended that since poker was a game of skill and not a game of luck, it was not covered under the provisions of the Gaming Act. In the first go around of the court room, the jury soundly rejected Kelly’s assertion and for that reason he was convicted of violations of the Gaming Act. Kelly did eventually appeal the decision but the appeal failed as well and for this reason the conviction stands.

Little is known about the relationship between Microgaming and Gutshot Poker and for that reason it is impossible to know whether this decision against Kelly was a contributing factor in Microgaming’s decision to suspend the Gutshot Poker account. If so, it would have taken a long time for the wheels at Microgaming to turn since the account was officially suspended on September 26th while the contract was officially terminated just four days later on September 30th. That would represent more than one and a half years since the arrest, although some have speculated that if Microgaming was waiting for the final decision on the appeal to come through, the timeline makes a lot more sense.

In any case, Microgaming appears to be playing their cards close to their chest on this one, saying nothing more than Gutshot Poker had multiple breaches in the operating rules that Microgaming has instituted on all of their network sites. The suspension took place ostensibly because of these multiple breaches. The press release that Microgaming released was not very descriptive however, leading many people to speculate that there is more going on than meets the eye at present.

Whether or not that is true is unknown however. The only thing that is known at this time is that the relationship between Microgaming and Gutshot Poker is over and that at least for the present Gutshot Poker is a member of the Cake Poker Network. Everything else at this stage is nothing but speculation.

There are certain things in the history of the world that are surprising, but in terms of the modern day-to-day operations of online gambling, there are few things that could be as surprising as what the small country of Holland has done in relation to online gambling.

If there was a single country that could be designated a safe haven in the developed world by people involved in online gambling it would be the country of Holland. It is a country that allows marijuana smoking and it is also a country that allows drug addicts to get clean needles at their pharmacies. However, this extremely liberal country apparently can do those things but draw the line when it comes to online gambling.

Exhibit A is the European Union, the supranational entity that controls most of the countries located on the European continent. The European Union has recently made a policy shift and in doing so has attempted to stamp out a lot of the online gambling that has been going on within its borders. There is rampant speculation regarding why the EU governing council would make such a blatantly unpopular move, but many believe that it has to do with influence from the United States.

Exhibit B is the country of Holland, whose legislators have decided to take the advice of the EU and interpret it in a way that has led to massive increases in the amount of taxation that online gambling operators will incur. Many taxes in Holland are designed so that the infrastructure in that particular part of the economy can be built up, but these taxes are designed to be nothing but punitive. Indeed, the Holland-based legislators appear to be interested in breaking up online gambling monopolies as quickly as possible and that indeed does appear to be what is fuelling these particular moves.

Exhibit C is the actions taken by those same legislators in Amsterdam against two specific online gambling operations that are located in Holland. Oranje Casino and Unibet are the names of the two companies and the legislators in Holland appear to be using every play available in the book to get these companies to leave. They have even gone so far as to borrow from the US playbook and severely punish payment processors in Holland that facilitate the operations of Oranje and Unibet.

All three of these exhibits show a shocking change of attitude on the part of the Dutch authorities. This normally friendly and laid-back country has now become one of the leading crusaders against online gambling. However, the ironic part of the whole thing is that the actions they have taken against offshore and online gambling have actually massively helped casinos that are land-based and located inside Holland. In other words, people have not stopped gambling, but have just shifted their focus elsewhere. This seems to indicate that the plan has backfired as neither Holland nor the European Union wanted that particular outcome to take place.

Democratic Representative Barney Frank is the head of the House Committee on Financial Services and this is the committee that is responsible for making some headway into repealing the 2006 ban on online gambling that was passed back when the Republicans were still in power. This ban was one of the most unpopular things they ever did and Frank’s attempts to repeal the bill have been very popular not just amongst online gambling lobbyists, but also amongst the general public many of whom actually do play online poker and do other online gambling activities.

The original bill known as the Payments Systems Protection Act was blocked by Republicans on the committee, preventing Frank from moving through on his goal and forcing him to create a new version of the PSPA that passed by a margin of 30-19 in the committee when it was voted upon.

According to Frank, this particular piece of legislation did not prove to be everything he wanted. He still has a stated goal of wanting to repeal the UIGEA and with the support he has from the public on that particular issue, it is probably something that could be on the chopping block before the next President assumes office.

The new PSPA is not something that cuts to the heart of the UIGEA in the direct sense, but it does a very good job of coming at it from the flank and causing the UIGEA some serious problems in the long run. For example, the PSPA requires agencies of the federal government to create very clear definitions of what constitutes an illegal online gambling activity. In other words, the UIGEA did not define exactly what unlawful internet gambling was and for that reason the PSPA forces that definition on the regulatory agencies before any of the measures stipulated in the UIGEA can be utilized.

The bill will not only require federal agencies to create a clear distinction between what constitutes a legal online gambling activity and an illegal online gambling activity, but it will also force them into providing examples of illegal online gambling activities. These examples will then be combined with the new definitions in order to figure out which online gambling activities are off limits in the United States, allowing lawmakers to legislate against those gambling activities rather than against financial institutions.

With this type of specific wording in place, the blanket authority given to the federal government by the UIGEA has been rescinded. The UIGEA allowed federal officials to go after payment processors, credit card companies and financial institutions for funding online gambling websites. This of course led to many infamous raids such as the one on NETeller’s head office in the United States and it in turn led to the marginalization for a period of time of all dissenting voices. That period of time is over however and many former online gamblers in the US are looking forward to returning to one of their favorite activities.