Not that you have to be against betting, period, to be against online gambling.
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Yet Europe itself is deeply divided when it comes to online gambling (see article).
That will raise taxes and, he argues, help mitigate some problems associated with online gambling.
That has not endeared him to those in America who want to criminalise online gambling outright.
The problem, however, is that Zynga is not that well positioned to conquer the online gambling world.
Presumably, the legal issues with online gambling in the U.S. would still potentially need to be worked out.
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The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement act of 2006 limited credit card use for online gambling, but kept fantasy sports legal.
There may be another factor counting against Mr Carruthers, a vocal advocate of the regulation of the online gambling industry.
About a dozen countries, including France, Spain and Italy, and many offshore jurisdictions, have set up systems for licensing online gambling.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and the American Gaming Association are working to get online gambling legislation through a divided Congress.
New Jersey is the third and largest state to approve online gambling, following similar law changes in Delaware and Nevada.
And since gambling is a state rather than a federal issue, any legalisation of online gambling is likely to be patchy.
Pyncus also believes that the US online gambling market will at some point become open and government-regulated, although the timing is uncertain.
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The exception to that rule is online gambling, where companies are required to have proof someone's age before allowing them to bet.
The law aims to stop online gambling by preventing credit card companies and banks from processing fund transfers for unlawful Internet gambling.
In theory there is a single market, but in practice only 13 of the European Union's 27 member states approve of online gambling.
And democratic governments are learning that illegal commercial activity, such as online gambling, can be regulated by controlling credit-card companies and other financial intermediaries.
Critics of Zynga might be inclined to believe that the company will use the same exploitation and copycat tactics to bolster its online gambling business.
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The law, passed in 2006, aims to stop online gambling by preventing credit card companies and banks from processing fund transfers for unlawful Internet gambling.
Speculation has been running high that Zynga would move into online gambling particularly with its Zynga Poker game and its recently announced Casino series of games.
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Federal prosecutors in Baltimore, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Kay, have also been conducting several online gambling investigations, building up to the indictment of Ayre.
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This non sequitur and associated arguments, such as the claim that legalized online gambling protects minors, were rejected by the U.S. gambling commission and experts testifying before Congress.
The ATP is currently investigating a match in Poland in which online gambling site Betfair voided bets on a match involving the Russian because of irregular betting patterns.
In late 2011, the Justice Department flip-flopped on one of its most important online gambling positions, claiming the Wire Act only applied to sports betting and not online poker.
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In the United States the situation with real-money online gambling is more complicated - the law currently forbids banks and others offering payment processing services to betting services targeted at US citizens.
Joseph Kelly, a law professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies online gambling, said that criminal charges in the U.S. had already done much damage to its image.
In Germany, where a ban on online gambling came into force last year, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has ordered Betfair, a British firm (see article), to block access to its residents.
Since there are real rewards at stake, this free-to-play model has to operate without a cash shop or in-game purchases, as they would put the title at risk of falling under online gambling laws.
The Department of Justice years ago took the position that the federal Wire Act of 1961 prohibited all sorts of online gambling even though the law itself seemed to only apply to sports betting.
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But even as Congress illegalized online gambling act last year, virtual economies like Second Life have remained in a legal gray area, allowing players to wager game currency that is often traded for real-world money.
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