Regulating Internet Gambling

This is examination of some of the federal criminal laws implicated by Internet gambling and of a few of the constitutional questions associated with their application. It is a federal crime: (1) to use telecommunications to conduct a gambling business; (2) to conduct a gambling business in violation of state law; (3) to travel interstate or overseas, or to use any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce, to facilitate the operation of an illegal gambling business; (4) to systematically commit these crimes in order to acquire or operate a commercial enterprise; (5) to launder the proceeds of an illegal gambling business or to plow them back into the business(6 to spend or deposit more than $10,000 of the proceeds of illegal gambling in any manner, or (7) since passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, P.L. 109-347 (2006) (31 U.S.C. 5361-5367), for a gambling business to accept payment for illegal Internet gambling. Internet gambling implicates each of these provisions under some circumstances. Although prosecution in some instances may be limited by constitutional provisions relating to the Commerce Clause, Free Speech, and Due Process, in most instances impediments are likely to be practical rather than constitutional.

Preface; Internet Gambling: An Abridged Overview of Federal Criminal Law; Can Internet Gambling Be Effectively Regulated to Protect Consumers and the Payments System? Hearing before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, June 8, 2007; Testimony of Wayne Abernathy On Behalf of the American Bankers Association Before the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Committee on Financial Services, United States House of Representatives; Statement of Leigh Williams, On Behalf of Bits and the Financial Services Roundtable Before the United States Congress Subcommittee on Domestic and International and Monetary Policy, Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing on Proposed Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Regulations: Burden without Benefit? April 2, 2007; Statement of Louise L. Roseman, Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System before the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology of the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, April 2, 2008; Testimony of Ted Teruo Kitada, Legal Group, Wells Fargo & Company Before the Subcommittee on Domestic & International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology, Committee on Financial Services, United States House of Representatives, April 2, 2008; Statement of Harriet May, President & CEO, GECU of El Paso, TX, On Behalf of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act before the House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology, April 2, 2008; U.S. Treasury Department Office on Public Affairs; Index.