Online Porn Crackdowns and Internet Gambling

[squiffy]

See this link for a brief article on how police are setting up fake websites to trap kiddie porn users and molesters. While I applaud, this law enforcement effort, the article also mentions that police have arrested people who used credit cards to pay for online info. It is not clear to me whether that was only at the fake sites or whether it was at the real sites.

My concern is that online poker sites have banking and credit card info, or home addresses for their players. So if the government ever got serious about shutting down internet poker, and if they could ever get access to players' info, it would be trivial to nail us. I guess the only saving grace is that it would be a challenge for a U.S. law enforcement officer to get info about U.S. players from a foreign-based online Poker company. Oh well. Just hope this is not a slippery slope to cracking down on internet gambling. I just can't think of a way to remain anonymous, yet still deposit money and collect my winnings. Right now the poker sites have my address and bank account info. I cannot figure out any way to register and play anonymously. Just won't work. So I guess I just have to accept the risk that some day the government or IRS will come calling.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/12/18/porn.sting.reut/index.html

[BradleyT]

Why do so many people think the U.S. Government has control over the entire Internet?

[Simon Diamond]

They like to control the rest of the world, so why not the internet as well? /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Simon

[OrangeHeat]

If you pay your taxes you will not have to worry about the IRS calling.......

[Your Mom]

By control, do you mean protect? Or maybe you mean save?

[Simon Diamond]

If you pay your taxes you will not have to worry about the IRS calling.......

[insert demonic laughter here]

Simon

[OrangeHeat]

Seriously - How much money can you guys hide from the IRS????

If your hiding a couple g's no big deal. But how the hell do you hide 10K, 20K, 30K, 40K......If you don't claim it you can't invest it...or do anything now with new laws...

I am not comfortable risking big fines and jail time...UNLESS you guys have a good way to "clean" your profits...??

[squiffy]

Everything gets regulated sooner or later. When I say the government and IRS, I am not just worried about taxes. That is not a big deal. I am worried about the government making online poker illegal, unless it complies with certain regulations. Then it will be trivial for them to prosecute you if they can get your id info.

Whenever the government has an opportunity to make money, or whenever people are defrauded by an online company, there is a huge incentive for government to move in and regulate.

You cannot regulate the INTERNET. But you can imprison or fine the people who play there, you can imprison or fine the people who run the servers if you can negotiate an agreement with their government.

Also land based casinos have a huge incentive to shut down their online competitors.

[Cyndie]

I was audited for a small business several years ago, and since it was obvious to the auditor that there was no intent to defraud, the experience was not unpleasant at all.

We spent some time discussing how to minimize taxes legally, and...yes, I owed more money, but not nearly as much as I thought might be expected.

[OrangeHeat]

Are you saying I can not delare the 30k and play dumb when when/if I get audited?? Pay some penalties and off I go?

If that is the case then the risk of being audited verse the reward of not paying taxes swings towards not paying taxes.

Is there a limit for this?? How much before it's criminal 10K, 20k, 30k???

Really I am curious.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I am worried about the government making online poker illegal, unless it complies with certain regulations.

Then don't worry about the feds. They have no authority to regulate gambling. That authority rests with the states, so check your state laws about gambling. Odds are they're vague. The next issue is enforcement. Will your state want to invest the money in monitoring internet use to the extent it would take to know who's doing what.

Odds are this isn't going to be a big issue. Enforcement will just be too difficult.

What the feds are doing is trying to block financial transfers into gaming sites, but for the second straight year, the bill hasn't made it to the Senate floor after passing the house, so it will once again die and have to start the entire process over again in the House, where it will likely pass again go to the Senate and get buried again with election-year issues.

[daryn]

well didn't al gore invent it?

[Cyndie]

NO, I am saying that since some of the columns of things that I deducted actually matched the receipts that I had, and that I had things in file folders that showed an interest in making things easy for the guy, that he wasn't as picky as he could have been about a couple things that I had misplaced...or some items that I paid cash for, and didn't have much in the line of verification.

If the amount of *income* from my checking account didn't match the top line of the schedule C, I doubt he would have had any sense of humor at all! The fact that a little bit from one year got postponed to the next year, and maybe not noticed the next year might not have been a problem...but if you want to find out with large amounts, you are asking for a fall, since they did want statements for about 15 months, not just 12.

However, deduct *everything*, and then put the money that you save in an IRA...IF one year in 20 you get audited, the money you save should pay any interest... the *penalties* only show up if they believe you were fraudulent in your deductions.

[astroglide]

that quote is not real, and that joke is really old

[astroglide]

they wouldn't have to monitor, they would only have to make a state law for isps that they cannot allow traffic to known gambling ip addresses.

[MrDannimal]

Except that you can't do that because sites offer play chip games that aren't illegal.

[Glenn]

I don't know why anyone hasn't mentioned this, but it should be painfully obvious that the government is quite a bit more interested in catching child molesters than they are in catching gamblers.

[Wake up CALL]

[ QUOTE ]
that quote is not real, and that joke is really old

[/ QUOTE ]

On March 9th, 1999 Al Gore told Wolf Blitzer "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet"

Not really a great deal of difference between inventing and creating is there Astroglide?


My favorite Gore quote, "A zebra does not change its spots." /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Vehn]

Read the snopes (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.htm) article and make up your mind.

[CrackerZack]

Doesn't Tomato end with an 'e'?

[DOTTT]

If your worried about the IRS then you should consider cashing out using Epassporte (if you play on party) when I signed up they didn't ask me my SS# which was a suprise to me. I havn't made any big cashouts the most I ever made was $1200 so I dont know how it would work if you are considering cashing out 10k or 20k at one time.

[pretender2k]

I do advicate illegal porn in anyway but I do have to give one bit of credit to the porn industry. Without them there would not be near the amount of people if any willing to give out their credit card number online. This would be if internet commerce of any type was even legal yet.

[pretender2k]

Also land based casinos have a huge incentive to shut down their online competitors.

Do they have that big of incentive to shut them down or just let them pave the way and then start their own or buy them out and use their customer base to create a new profits?

[pretender2k]

This might actually be very easy since my bank has already identified Neteller as a gambling related site. I found this out when I tried to used my debit card there.

[pretender2k]

No I think Simon meant control. Anytime you regulate anything you hurt it's potential. Read Ayn Rand.

[Cyndie]

tomato...tomatoes

potato...potatoes

radio...radios

memento...mementoes, or mementos (usually first is preferred)

studio...studios

[daveymck]

I dont know if the US has big casino chains but in the UK the big online sites are all been driven by the bricks and mortar bookmakers who all have moved their servers to gibralter and other places probably to get around UK tax laws. They are developing online casinos and poker sites and as far as I am aware their has been no mention of banning/curbing online gambling in fact the UK laws have been relaxed quite a bit which is going to probably lead to bigger casinos and some resorts looking to a Vegas type model.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Here's the reason this won't work, and why the internet poker sites haven't been blocked already. You don't have to play for real money at the sites.

[Brian]

<IRS> So you've won a lot of money playing poker, huh?
<me> Yup but I lost it all on horse racing /images/graemlins/frown.gif

-Brian

[Wake up CALL]

[ QUOTE ]
Read the snopes (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.htm) article and make up your mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

How would this article change my mind Vehn? Did you even read the link you posted? It shows the same quote as I posted for the Wolf Blitzer interview? Or did I misunderstand the point of your post? If so please clarify.


Thanks,

Wake

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
Not really a great deal of difference between inventing and creating is there Astroglide?

[/ QUOTE ]
no, but there's a gigantic difference between initiative and creation. he claimed that he created initiative, not that he created the internet.

[Vehn]

Yes I read it, and yes it contains the same quote. However the article provides something known as "context". Perhaps you've heard of it?

Thanks,

-V

p.s. I'd really like to improve my game so that I can hopefully some day be a high-roller such as yourself. Now I know you're a very busy man, and you do so much for this community already, but would you mind taking a minute to add to your impressive collection of 1088 deeply strategy-related posts, and talk about some interesting Texas Hold'em Poker hands? Its the one where you get two cards face down and then 5 "community cards" are turned face up. It can often be played in public card rooms, and due to the wonders of technology, on the Internet on your computer at home so I've heard. There is an entire section in the middle of the board, which seems to get some good traffic, where these sorts of things can be discussed and your valuble feedback, which of course you consistently dazzle us with, would be greatly appreciated.

[Wake up CALL]

[ QUOTE ]


p.s. I'd really like to improve my game so that I can hopefully some day be a high-roller such as yourself. Now I know you're a very busy man, and you do so much for this community already, but would you mind taking a minute to add to your impressive collection of 1088 deeply strategy-related posts, and talk about some interesting Texas Hold'em Poker hands? Its the one where you get two cards face down and then 5 "community cards" are turned face up. It can often be played in public card rooms, and due to the wonders of technology, on the Internet on your computer at home so I've heard. There is an entire section in the middle of the board, which seems to get some good traffic, where these sorts of things can be discussed and your valuble feedback, which of course you consistently dazzle us with, would be greatly appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Someday when you come down form the throne upon which you worship yourself so mightily you may be ready to receive and retain wisdom passed on by others wiser than yourself. Until then enjoy your view of the little folk.

[Robbe]

Stop attacking the people who question your posts and address the points that they make.

I worked near a LOT of the people who were working on the fledgling Internet as it began to take wing in the 80s and early 90s and to a man, they considered Al Gore their number one friend in Congress. None of them would have a problem with Gore taking the credit that he did.

Al Gore might be a twit, but you will not prove it on this issue. Find another one.