Regulating Internet Gambling

Regulating Internet Gambling Synopsis

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.

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