News

Tuesday, 05 May 2009 07:46

Despite the ban on Internet gambling in the US propped up by the unpopular UIGEA, many online gambling companies still manage to attract a large enough number of players to warrant remedial action by some individual States to try and curb it.

Minnesota is one such state who’s Department of Public Safety has written to eleven telephone as well as Internet service providers requesting that they block access to around two hundred online gambling sites along with their telephone numbers. The State is invoking a law dating back to 1961 called the Wire Act which they have come to the conclusion is being violated by these sites.

The director of the Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division, John Willems, has stated that they are putting Minnesota’s online gamblers and the gambling website operators on advance notice. The intention is to impact the business models of the site operators by negatively disrupting their cash flow while Minnesota state citizens should be fully aware that all access to escrow accounts and the funds contained in them may be in jeopardy. 

The notices were posted to the following companies:

AT&T; Comcast; DirecTV; Charter Communications; Dish Network; Embarq; Frontier Communications; Verizon Wireless; Qwest Communications; Wildblue Communications and Sprint/Nextel.

The Poker Players Alliance, a non-profit organisation, has accused the Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) of misrepresentation of federal law. They likened the move to something that might have been concocted in Communist China, not the State of Minnesota. They added that it should be about the Internet remaining free of censorship as well as allowing grown up, mature adults to choose if they want to enjoy playing Texas Hold’em in their own homes either amongst friends or on a computer. 

John Willems also said that he expects to receive positive responses within 2 to 3 weeks. He’ll be taking a tough line with those providers that fail to respond by forwarding their names to the Federal Communications Commission. According to a recent press release, Willems expects to take on the 200 listed websites and, depending on compliance expand it to include thousands of websites.

The department has also made it clear they want Minnesotans to be banned from any contact with gambling websites via telephone.

Whether or not Willems and his department can make use of the Wire Act to stamp out Internet gambling, within the State of Minnesota, remains to be seen.