I do a ridiculous amount of internet gambling, so maybe I can answer this one
A while back USA Senetors decided to ban banks from processing online bank transactions. Online gambling is technically still legal in the US, but to withdraw/deposit money from your bank to your account and vice versa is the thing that was made banned.
So after president Bush decided to sign this amendment (it was introduced very suddenly after being attached to the end of port security amendment, which had nothing to do with online gambling whatsoever I don't think)
So the current state now is 90% of gambling sites won't allow transactions from/to US bank accounts. There are a few exceptions, but the government is battling that. Many gambling companies that were situated in the US moved offshore and are now located in places like Isle of Man, where they can legally accept money from USA people.
Personally I was upset that the amendment ever got signed. (Don't get me wrong, I am quite a big Bush supporter, I believe in the justification of the Iraq war amongst other things), but I was so annoyed at the gambling bill, as it basically dried up a lot of the action on the poker sites I played at, making it harder to make money.
It just seems ridiculous kids can drink/smoke as they like, but if an average adult in the USA wants to place a $5 bet on a gambling site from their own home, then it's not allowed. The main reasoning behind it was that it creates gambling addicts and is a way for terrorists and other criminals to launder money, but this is obviously an extremely 0.0000001% case of gambling transactions.
There are several organizations battling to get this amendment overrided, so fingers crossed!
- Mark