WHETHER ONLINE GAMBLING IS LEGAL OR ILLEGAL
Article by Pankaj Gupta
The legality of gambling is hugely dependant on the state in which the gambling is being organised. The law differs from one state to another and as a result the activity which is illegal in one state can be very easily legal in another. When it comes to online gambling, it becomes very difficult to judge the legality. The scope of Internet is so huge that no filtering mechanism stands enough for it. Individual state, country or government cannot have control over the world wide web. But still it is very important to know whether the game you are playing is legal or not.
Absence of precedent makes it very hard to determine whether online gambling is legal or illegal. Gambling by phone has been banned by the Wire Act, which puts some restriction on the scope of gambling. But it does not mention any prohibition over gambling over Internet. A legislation in this regard is not enough to render the act of gambling to be illegal. There need to be a proper case where a person has been charged of the crime of gambling, prosecuted and subsequently convicted of the crime. As no such incident has happened yet, no legal precedent has been yet established.
In case you want a yes no answer to the question regarding illegality of gambling, you are looking at a distant answer. The law is not at all objective and brief in this matter. While you are playing poker online you should know that there are no laws which has made playing online poker illegal. Therefore you cannot be charged of any crime as there is no law under which you can be prosecuted.
Also Internet is such a huge area that it is practically impossible to get hold of online gambling offender as no track of their physical identity can be found the maximum times. There are millions of player who are playing this game every second. One can easily imagine the quantity of litigation that will be invited if the state starts prosecuting for gambling.
It is a great source of revenue and no state would like to hamper that. To be on the safer side, you should always keep yourself updated in these matters so that in case any law is passed on a given date, it will not take you off guard. People who are too tensed in these matters, should avoid gambling all together.