Over 5000 small banks have come out to voice opposition to the anti-gambling bill in the Senate. The bill would require these banks to block payments from US residents to online casinos. It's a poorly thought out piece of legislation, because it requires the banks to do all the enforcement work on their end, and their back-ends are not set up to do this.

The online casino industry is a $12 billion a year industry, and about $6 billion of that comes from US players.

Wall Street Journal

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Slotty McSlots

So they want the banks to do the police work huh. That's one of the worst ideas I've heard yet.

Not only is it a terrible idea, it's a costly idea. And guess who's going to pay for it?

The banks are going to pass the costs along to their customers.

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Slotty McSlots

Hopefully, this is the kind of thing that will help kill the proposed ban on Internet Gambling.

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"People shouldn't be afraid of their government. A government should be afraid of its people."

It was killing it til Frist got the brilliant idea that he could tack it onto something unrelated at the last minute and shove it through with no time for debate. This is just the fight the White House has been waiting for to institue and get the line item veto - but Bush is too much of a pansy to make an issue so he got wishy washy for a week and then signed it anyway.