As for my own curiosity, and before I/we get prosecuted for on-line gambling, I like to get some answers/confirmations/feedbacks from Prof Rose & or the resident counselors for these questions:
Why would people here in this community have risked and exposed themselves to prosecutions for internet gambling? Even Arnold Snyder provides Bodog Sportbook in his website for us to �try our luck�. If the Fed prosecutes Bodog Sporstbook successfully based on the Federal Wire Wager Act, will it make Arnold Snyder an accessory to Bodog�s crime? Also will it make us criminals too because we gamble illegally when we place our bets with our credit cards? Ignorance is no defense of the law, especially when we can easily find this information on the internet:
It is also illegal under federal law, including the Federal Wire Wager Act (18 U.S.C. � 1084 (1994), to operate a betting or wagering business using telephone lines or other�wire communication facility.� Federal prosecutors have successfully prosecuted United States citizens with businesses based offshore under the Wire Wager Act. Mary Jo White, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has stated publicly that offshore sports betting operators who use the telephones, Internet, or other forms of wire communications to solicit bettors from the United States are acting in violation of federal law, and that her office will continue to monitor and vigorously prosecute offshore sports betting operations that engage in �blatantly illegal activity.�
Although online or Internet gambling is legal in other countries, for example, the Dominion Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, Antigua, etc., it is illegal for operators in such countries to accept wagers from people in the United States.
Jay Cohen was convicted in February 2000 for violating the Wire Wager Act in connection with his operation of World Sports Exchange (WSE). Mr. Cohen was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $5,000. WSE is a website that operates out of Antigua and that solicited people residing in the United States, to place bets through use of toll-free 800 numbers and WSE�s website. Cohen also placed ads in various United States newspapers and magazines. WSE invited customers from throughout the United States to contact WSE to open a sports betting account; to wire transfer money to WSE to fund that account; and then to bet on sporting events and contests using that account. Also, in March 1998, 21 defendants were charged with violating the Wire Wager Act for their involvement in operating offshore sports books that accepted wagers from people in the United States via the Internet and telephones. Ten of those defendants pled guilty to conspiring to violate the Wire Wager Act and three pled guilty to related misdemeanor charges.
It is a gross misdemeanor to knowingly transmit or receive wagers, betting odds and any other gambling information intended to be used in any kind of unauthorized gambling activity, such as bookmaking. It is illegal under RCW 9.46.240, to transmit gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore or any other similar means; it is also illegal to knowingly install or maintain equipment for the transmission or receipt of gambling information.
You could be charged with violating the law prohibiting the knowing transmission or receipt of gambling information. You could also be charged with Professional Gambling in the First, Second or Third Degree, depending upon the amount of money and the number of people involved. Criminal penalties range from imprisonment of one to ten years, and a fine of between $5,000 to $20,000.
Source: the google search engine
