As the football season approaches we had several requests to clarify the legality of betting online with an offshore bookmaker.

The bottom line on the million dollar question of “Is this legal”, is no – according to the Catherine Hanaway, US Attorney in St. Louis, Missouri. She testified this past winter in front of the House sub-committee that the Department of Justice sees all Internet gambling as illegal. However, she has not gone on to prosecute racing sites like BrisNet or YouBet for accepting racing wagers or the NJ lottery for it’s online Slingo game. So clearly, her statement was pokies online a bit misguided.

Unfortunately for gamblers, the UIGEA did clarify all of this to some extent and does provide some backing for her statement. In essence, the US government now bears no distinction between the corner bookie or speakeasy card game and the online operator – both are accepting illegal bets. This is why some of the largest gaming companies, and all of the publicly traded ones, exited the US market after the November 2006 passage of the UIGEA. Certainly investors would not sink money into a company that is accepting ‘illegal’ bets.

Still, we have not heard of a single gambler being prosecuted. In fact, an Arizona case in 2006 found a local bookie using a price-per-head service offshore and the local sheriff organized a year-long sting that successfully busted the entire illegal betting ring. They also were able to garner his complete list of clientele. And, the sheriff who headed the operations came out at the time stated that he also expected to net 200 to 300 other people who made bets. None have been indicted to date. In addition, back in February of this year, another ring, this time in Massachusetts, was popped, again using the Internet to process wagers. This time the lead officer was asked if investigators might take legal action against the bettors themselves and said, “Historically, we haven’t.”

So, even though these bets may be construed as illegal, online gamblers should have little fear of prosecution. It’s all about the money……and there is not much to be gotten from the gamblers. But there is from the operators and banks who process these illegal transactions. After all, Neteller coughed up $136 million, the US government seized almost $20 million from FirePay and Catherine Hanaway’s office was able to extort $31.5 million from Miscrosoft, Google and Yahoo for ‘past promotion of illegal gambling’.

Does the $100 online weekend football bettor have to worry about heading to the can or forfeiting their life savings? Probably not, but the question and subsequent cloudy answer is still clearly on the minds of many players nearly 2 years after the passage of the UIGEA. With no indictments against bettors, it is fairly safe to assume that the bettor, though not shielded from prosecution, can wager with little worry.

And, doesn’t this country have enough problems with banks going under, two wars that appear will last for years to come and an economy that dips lower everyday, without going after its own citizens for what they do with their own money in the privacy of their own homes? The answer here is clearly a resounding yes – leave the gamblers alone to their own vices!