[I/want/To/Marry/Chanelle]

Originally posted by Mark
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

Thankyou for taking the time out to reply to my query I have heard some rumours about it, but was never really sure why basically it was just the states which made that complete ban of online gambling and the rest of the world accepted it, hardly felt fair. I see from what you say that banks processing online bank transactions which has been banned and due to that, it makes it hard for online gambling to happen, but surprisingly still technically not banned.The USA made big mistakes over prohibition and perhaps they should have learnt from that, but trying to ban online gambling I dont think they have learnt anything from prohibition times. Like every addictive medium or product, there will be a black-market for those who wish to bypass this law and I am sure many americans will be gambling online while I type.

I hope your pleasure of online gambling is under control. I know that some people have the luck of the irish or just the skill and actually make quite a bit of money out of it. But for every casino, there are more losers than winners and the same will aply to online gambling companies like 888 which will break many people and basically take all their hard earned money away from them. It is sad really. Many will chase money when they lose and lose and lose, hoping to be lucky next time round, just after they are five thousand in debt or something but before they know it, they are taken to the point of no return and I guess some will contemplate suicide.

Not trying to scare you here Mark.

I was looking up on a particular website today about the dangers of online gambling, I took the liberty of adding it to my reply.

The Dangers of Online Gambling
Stop your gambling addiction and stop gambling your life away.
No More Gambling does not sell anything; our sole purpose is to help you into the treatment and recovery process for online gambling addiction.
Learn how it all started and how to make it stop.
With the introduction of gaming over the internet, gambling addicts were faced with a new hurdle in which to jump over. For these individuals, resisting the urge to gamble at their local casino was hard enough but with this newly acquired access to gambling from the comfort of their own living room, a new type of monster reared its ugly head. Now their addiction would be harder to resist due to the sheer availability of online gaming websites. Learn how online gambling came into existence and how this type of gambling affects an individual who has the addiction.

Gambling over the internet first became available to users of the World Wide Web back in the mid-1990’s when the Caribbean islands began issuing licenses to individuals and companies to enable them to operate gaming websites of this type in a legal manner. The individuals who owned the online gambling websites would pay the Caribbean government to operate such sites. From that time to the present, online gambling websites have been widely utilized and by the looks of it, it does not appear that they will lose popularity any time soon.

There are a few reasons why online gambling can be such an addictive habit. One reason why this is so revolves around the convenience of online gambling. One can sit in the comfort of his own home, go online and wager large amounts of money on automated games such as blackjack, poker, roulette and more. The only things an individual needs to be able to gamble online are a computer, internet access and a credit card. Once those things are obtained, that person can start playing games online for money. With any addiction, convenience not only fuels the fire but is the main reason behind the crash and burn aspect of it all. It is very hard to resist something that is at the tip of your fingers, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Another addictive quality of online gambling is the temptation that if you play, you may win money. There are many people out in the world today that are looking for get rich quick schemes in order to make a living. The aspect of knowing that if you play just one more game you might be able to win a lot of money is very tempting. This propels the individual to play more and more each day, therefore forming an addiction to online gambling. Money makes individuals do foolish things sometimes.

Fortunately for individuals who are battling an online gambling addiction, there are people and organizations available to help rid one of this terrible type of addiction. Gamblers Anonymous was organized back in 1957 in Los Angeles, California for the primary reason of helping individuals beat their gambling addiction. Today, Gamblers Anonymous focuses not only on gambling in a casino type setting but on online gambling problems as well. The basis of Gamblers Anonymous is to organize a place for individuals with gambling problems to meet anonymously and talk about the reasons behind their addiction and what can be done to help them through these hard times.

If a group setting is not the type of arena in which you wish to discuss your gambling addiction, outpatient therapy may be another form of treatment one with this type of addiction may want to try. Professionals in the mental health field will often hold individual sessions with those who have gambling problems and try to help them through this terrible addiction.

There are ways for the individual with a gambling addiction to recover and live a normal, happy life. The first thing to understand is that gambling addictions are not so uncommon. In 1999, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission Report showed that 1.4% of the population in the United States can be considered pathological gamblers. For this reason, there are avenues in which an individual with this type of condition can take to obtain the help that they need to recover from their gambling addiction. There are options out there, it is just up to the individual to know when it is time to face the facts and get some help.

If you have not reached the point of acknowledgement then please check out our resources. http://www.nomoregambling.com/online-gambling.html