Under pressure from the federal government, Google and Yahoo both announced that they would no longer accept advertising from online casinos. The new government strategy for putting a halt to online gambling is to threaten those who advertise the services of the casinos. As nearly all casinos are set up in countries outside of US jurisdiction and where gambling is legal (Belize, UK, etc.) they have been unable to apply pressure to the casinos themselves.
Unfortunately, I cannot find the link at the moment there was also a story recently about people who provide technology consulting services to online casinos being targeted for government harassment. The story goes like this: You accept a consulting gig to fly down to Belize and help some online casino fix some bugs in their system. On your return, federal agents are waiting to charge you with aiding and abetting the crime of online gambling. The fact that you performed your services in a country where online gambling is legal and have no involvement in the operations of the business is not seen as a mitigating factor in the government’s eyes. Nice, eh?
I guess the next question is; where does this end? Will they come after blogger sites who offer signup bonuses? Hell, will they come after bloggers who are putting in writing the fact that they are violating state laws? Your guess is as good as mine but it seems that things are not looking too good.
While we’re on the topic though, I thought I would also include a link to a story that appeared in Wired Magazine back in 2000 about a group of Americans who ditched everything and set up a casino in Belize. It’s an interesting story on what happens behind the scenes of some of the online gambling sites.