Today the US House of Representatives has approved a new restriction on online gambling. This will in effect make gambling online as severe as owning child pornography. Both will be classified as a Class C Felony. This is a 12 billion dollar industry, with a good chunk (> 30%) of users based out of the USA. The House voted 317-93 for the bill, which will allow officials and ISP’s to setup blocks of internet gambling sites.
Some may look at this law stating that it is a violation of being able to do whatever they want, however the USA has always had restrictions on gambling, and internet gambling was just a way around them. Unfortunately for gamblers, when they are using these online sites, there is a very large risk of their personal data being used, or scammed out of money. Many US credit card companies have already rejected charges from online gambling sites in effort to cut down on the fraud transactions that occur, but this only forces gamblers to go through third party money transfer companies, like Paypal.
Personally, this bill doesn’t affect me right now, but what is going to happen when they find other online services are at risk? Will it eventually affect any of the current tasks that I perform online? This bill has yet to be approved by the Senate, but analysts say the bill wasn’t even expected to pass the House.