brumar_lv wrote:
According to todays paper the US Congress plans to vote on a bill
that would ban using a credit card to pay online bets. If that
happens, that could be a serious blow to online gaming it seems to
me.
As I understand it, federal laws prohibit online gambling ... the
problem was how to enforce it. Evidently, the credit card companies
can be told not to honor payments to offshore gaming operations. The
bill has several "exceptions" such as online lotteries and horse
betting.
So, it might be possible to continue to place bets, but you'd have to
establish your account using checks or some other form of payment.
I fully expect this to die when it goes to the Senate for approval.
Even as of late, they've shown themselves to be just a bit more
circumspect and respective of individual freedom than the parochial House.
btw, as noted elsewhere, there's no federal law prohibiting online
gaming -- not does the new law under consideration include such a
prohibition (despite Rep. Conyer's urgings). It strictly is limited
to a ban on financial payments to offshore casinos.
Of course, it's been a couple of years since any US bank has permitted
payments directly to an offshore casino (to my knowledge, there are
none now), a consequence of considerable federal pressure. Likewise,
when PayPal was acquired by eBay, corporate made the decision to
suspend such payments. (eBay also won't handle resale of your
"collectable" Playboys sitting in your basement these days 
This is why credit card payments are now made to independent financial
institions such as Neteller and FirePay. These are free-standing
instituions, not online casino shills - such as Intercasino originally
set up. The question is whether the payment ban will extend to any
firm known to transfer funds to offshore casinos.
That's reaching a little far in my book. But I guess I can see it
happening, even with Neteller which does sizable non-casino merchant
funding (although the withdrawal of US credit card casino funding was
a boon).
Time will tell, huh? (But I think you'll find that your transactions
will continue to go through for the time being, even should it pass
the Senate.)
- Harry