"Internet Gambling Illegal" segment on CBS News' 60 Minutes

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For one thing, it probably isn't illegal under federal law to just play at an online casino. It may be illegal under some state laws to gamble online. That depends on whether the gambling is deemed to take place in your home (or wherever the client computer is located) or in a foreign country, where the server is located. AFAIK, only one person has bee prosecuted for playing online in the US, some online sports better from North Dakota, who was prosecuted under state laws, pled guilty and paid a fine.

Trying to enforce the law against individual players, assuming it's even illegal for them to play, would be an excercise in futility for law enforcement. What are they going to do? Monitor all internet traffic to try to catch somebody gambling? Conduct no-knock raids to try to catch you gambling on your home computer? How do they establish probable cause to get a warrant to do either of these things? The Bill of Rights is eroding rapidly, but I think they would need some indication that a specific individual is gambling to get warrants to do either of these things. Kyl's idea of banning banks and credit cards from processing transactions probably won't work either, because of Netteller, Firepay, etc. which are located out of US, but are not gambling businesses themselves. Actually, I will give 60 minutes credit for letting people who think internet gambling should be legal taxed and regulated a chance to state their case, but they lose points for not really having a clear idea of what the true legal situation is regarding individual gamblers.

[68Mustang]

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They couldn't have possibly been more vague about what the law actually is on this. It seems like any time any one of these evening news magazines focuses on anything I know a lot about, they screw it all up.

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WAR ACE!!!

[JonPKibble]

Could have sworn I saw an ad on for my local casino during this broadcast.

Always check where your information is REALLY coming from!

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Could have sworn I saw an ad on for my local casino during this broadcast.

Always check where your information is REALLY coming from!

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Like the man said, "Follow the money." You usually won't be wrong. In this case it might not be true.

The TV sales force, local, regional and national, all get info as to possible "content sensitive" programs. They then make sales calls on their potential advertisers. A customer base has been identified.

If I knew 60 Minutes was doing this show I'd have immediately been talking to all my gambling-related accounts. And I'd have been cold-calling anyone I thought might be interested in pitching their product/service while a gambler audience would probably be high.

It just always kills me how politicians say gambling is so horrible, and yet look at all the state run lotteries and scratch off games. In the report they said all but 2 states have gambling now. It's just stupid they won't let US casinos do online. Personally I would be more comfortable with my money at a US company so I know I have legal recourse if something funny went on with my money.

[MicroBob]

I was going to mention briefly how sales of local-spots on national programs works but you summed it up quite nicely.


I think it's also worth adding that if I was the client (in this, the brick-and-mortar casino) I would ABSOLUTELY consider buying time on my local channel during the 60 minutes broadcast about internet-gambling.

The local casino probably doesn't know exactly what the story is going to cover and probably doesn't care.
They know that it's a 60-minutes story about gambling...his business is all about attracting gamblers. That's all he needs to know in order to be interested to buy a spot or two.

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I think it's also worth adding that if I was the client (in this, the brick-and-mortar casino) I would ABSOLUTELY consider buying time on my local channel during the 60 minutes broadcast about internet-gambling.

The local casino probably doesn't know exactly what the story is going to cover and probably doesn't care.
They know that it's a 60-minutes story about gambling...his business is all about attracting gamblers. That's all he needs to know in order to be interested to buy a spot or two.

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You, sir, understand more than just a little about bidnez!