Revolution And Revulsion In Sports Gambling
The internet has revolutionized how we as a society gather information and spend our leisure time, at the same time rewriting the book on many traditional ideas of how things are run. Among other things, the expansion of the Internet has written a new chapter in the history of gambling in sports.
Ten years ago, people who wanted to place a bet on a sporting event were forced to do so through a bookie in person, often daring public persecution and sometimes arrest for doing so. In the past decade, however, dozens of land based bookmaking companies have launched internet sites that allow people from all over the world to place bets on all sorts of different sporting events. Now, people from remote areas are just as able to place a bet with a bookmaker as people from metropolises, and can place those bets with the blanket of anonymity.
The rise in online sports gambling, however, is proving to be a major thorn in the side of the United States government. Congress and the Senate have often wrestled with the issue of sports gambling, and the historical timeline of the past time shows many bills and Acts passed which have sought to restrict or eliminate legalized gambling in the States. Until the passage of the Safe Port Act in late 2006, however, the U.S. government was flummoxed over what to do about sites that were run from offshore.
In addition to a greater ability to gamble, the United States government has also continually been exasperated by CEOs of major internet bookmaking operations that challenge the reasons for refusing to allow regulated sports betting by citizens of the United State. Some of these CEOs are by far the most educated and presentable faces to ever weigh in on the debate in the history of gambling in sports. One of the main players in the game, David Carruthers of BETonSports PLC, has proved especially apt in the debating game, frequently out-arguing his Republican opponents in publicized debates.
It could be this commitment to reasonable advocacy that is the reason behind Carruthers’ recent detainment at a Texas airport. The CEO was arrested on a stop over from the United Kingdom to Costa Rica and faces several federal charges for his role in internet sports gambling.
Another major head of an internet sports book also made headlines in the summer for being arrested in the United States. Peter Dicks was head of Sportingbet PLC when he was arrested in New York on a Louisiana warrant in September. Like Carruthers, Dicks was the visible head of a sports gambling operation that was entirely legal in his own country but which was in trouble for taking bets from players in the state of Louisiana. It seems as though offshore betting was considered legal sports gambling in New York in September, however, as Dicks was released by order of the governor soon after his arrest (although not before resigning his position as CEO).
Whatever else these cases might say about the U.S.A. and its policies towards other countries, they certainly indicate that a new chapter is being written in the history of gambling in sports. Maybe it will come to be known as the War on Gaming.
