程阳： Regulations and Policies on Online Gambling(Continue 2)

North America

North America has the biggest online casino business among the world (as illustrated in Figure 3), with United States providing the largest amount of casino games online; Canada, the second; Mexico, the least. In America, gambling is one of the main sources of revenue for the States. Charles Doyle (2003) stated that, "Americans spend over $40 billion a year on legalized gambling and over $30 billion a year gambling illegally." Gambling, no matter legal or not, has become a part of the America heritage.

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United States 美国：布什总统签署网络禁赌法案
United States has formed a large gambling enterprise comprising around 1,600 online casinos. Currently, top 5 states in U.S.A. with the most online casino sites are Nevada (335), California (163), Montana (155), Washington (149), and Florida (136).

Types of legal and illegal gambling
"There are five types of legal gambling in the United States: bingo, lotteries, pari-mutual betting, off track betting and casinos. Bingo is the most common form of legalized gambling; forty-six states participate in legal bingo. Forty-three states permit thoroughbred horse racing, lotteries are allowed in thirty-seven states, and only twenty-one states permit casino gambling匢llegal gambling like legal gambling is deeply rooted into American Society. Despite innumerable federal and state laws, illegal gambling still remains a part of American life" (Begun et al.). "Even though 48 states have some forms of legalized gambling such as lotteries, horse racing, casinos, riverboat and Indian casinos, casino gambling still remains illegal in most states" (NCALG). Gambling in the United States has undergone a great boom and it has increased exponentially. Many states, thus, have turned to the federal government to regulate Internet gambling.

Online gambling regulations
During the past decade, most states have expanded legalized gambling, including regulated casino-style games and lotteries. There has been an explosion in opening Native American casinos.

Charles Doyle (2003) stated that, "there are many federal gambling laws, most enacted to prevent unwelcome intrusion of interstate or international gambling into states where the activity in questions has been outlawed. They generally deal with lotteries, 'numbers', or betting on races and other sporting events, but several were written with sufficient breadth to cover casino or other kind of gambling as well."

The first law created to curb interstate gambling is the Wire Act in 1961. This act was to ban interstate gambling on sports by telephone or wire. Later, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona introduced Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1997, which enlarged the scope of the Wire Act to include any type of bet placed on the Internet. However, a storm of objections against this act was roused, because it banned every sort of online commercial contest, everywhere in the United States.

Senator Jon Kyl then drafted an amendment to the bill that would allow a variety of types of online gambling. The act, Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (IGPA) of 1999, stated that, "Officials from companies that offer Internet gambling could be fined and/or be imprisoned." Nonetheless, a variety of objections prevented the IGPA of 1999 from becoming law.

Recently, "Internet Gambling Licensing and Regulation Commission Act" was introduced to enforce this regulation of gambling licensing. It proposed to create a 12-month commission to study the possibility of regulating Internet gambling in the USA. The bill is currently in committee.

In addition, in the United States, no one can own and/or operate a casino without a license. WIGC, a New York State Corporation had a casino server in Antigua and ran its gambling operations from there. In July 1999, they were found guilty in a New York State court of violating Gambling laws. The judge indicated that the casino server could be anywhere (including the planet Mars), but if the company was incorporated within a US State (i.e. New York), then the company and its operations were subject to its own state laws.

On February 28, 2000, Jay Cohen, an Internet casino operator based in Antigua whose casino was taking bets from Americans, was found guilty on all counts of violating the Federal Wire Act of 1961. On August 9, 2000, he was fined USD $ 5000 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. In June 2002, his appeal to the US Supreme court was rejected and he must serve the full sentence.

The question of whether Internet gambling will be prohibited is, as of now, a gray area in the United States. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission concluded in a recent report that Americans alone wager around $80 to $380 billion dollars with online bookmakers, which is almost one hundred times the amount wagered legally on professional sports in Nevada.

Europe

Different countries in Europe are holding different views on Internet gambling. As there is no consistent and coordinated action taken by the European Commission, some countries have taken their own legislative steps to restrict Internet gambling, which many regards as a bad and even dangerous hobby. Until specific regulatory action is taken, the outdated criminal statutes of the continental European countries are not fit to be used to effectively restrict or prosecute online gambling.

Most of the attempts to enforce their laws - originally designed to cover terrestrial-based gambling - for purposes of prosecuting illegal online gambling have failed to receive the endorsement of the few continental Europe courts that have handled such cases. Until the European Union closes this major loophole in national laws by issuing up-to-date rules on Internet gambling, there is room for offshore casinos to take advantage of the huge European market opportunities. So far, the tiny jurisdictions have opened the door to the European market.

Not all the European countries restrict online gambling. There are three general purposes of these European national legislation efforts. The strictest one can be found in traditional Western Europe - Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Portugal. The legislation in these countries aims to prohibit online gambling, particularly in those cases where the player and the server handling the bets are located in the same national territory.

The second set of legislation, which aims to regulate Internet gambling in certain extend, is to be found in the liberal European countries like UK, Scandinavian countries, and The Netherlands.

The old continent of tiny jurisdictions in majority tend to adopt to the third strategy of the laissez faire in order to attract new business and investments:
Tax heavens like Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Gibraltar;
The Isle of Man began issuing online casino licenses in 2001. Licensees include Sun International, MGM Mirage, and the Rank Group; and
The Republic of San Marino, an enclave within Italian territory 20 km from the resort of Rimini, is considering the prospect of opening itself to Internet gambling in a much needed effort to revive its sources of taxable income.
As there are so many countries in Europe, in this paper, we will take a closer look of the case in two countries: United Kingdom and Isle of Man.

United Kingdom
The gambling atmosphere in United Kingdom is very hot. Gambling seems to be part of the British life. There are all kinds of gambling available, with new games almost everyday. However, the law of gambling is not as updated as the game. UK gambling law is based on the Gaming Act 1968 and is somewhat outdated. With regards to online gambling, it is perfectly legal for a punter to gamble online. However, online casino companies cannot be based in the UK. As the Gambling Act was formed prior to the Internet, casino licenses can only be given to land-based premises. Currently online casinos operators must be based offshore and operating within the relevant legal requirements of their host country.

There is a current draft of a new gambling bill that will provide the legal framework for online casino operators to setup within the UK. Although industry sources believe it may be delayed until after the next election.

Isle of Man
During 2001 the Department of Home Affairs of Isle of Man progressed the primary and the secondary legislation to legalize the operation of well-regulated on-line gambling sites. The On-line Gambling Regulation Act came into force in May. Four sets of regulations were approved by Tynwald in June. The first three licenses under the regulations were issued in November.

The application fee is ?,000 and the license fee is ?0,000 per annum. In addition, license holders are required to deposit ? million as a guarantee for the payment of customers and to establish a formal reserve for gaming based on a stated formula. Changes in 2003 somewhat softened these terms.

Asia Pacific

In the eyes of gambling website operators, Asia Pacific is a potential market. The traditional extensive gambling prohibitions across the countries in Asia Pacific have created a powerful demand for their borderless product. The Asia Pacific market is huge and because of the long suppressed interest, Asian players tend to spend the most money and are the most enthusiastic gamblers. The market in Asia Pacific is now growing faster than the U.S. and other well-established markets such as UK in Europe.

Australia
A federal law in Australia (The Interactive Gambling Act 2001) prohibits Australian and offshore bodies from providing Internet gambling services to Australian residents. The Act defines an Internet gaming service as an Internet casino or interactive gaming website. The prohibitions of the Interactive Gambling Act apply to all Internet gambling service providers no matter they are in Australian and offshore or whether they are owned by Australians or foreigners. It is also stipulated in the Act that anyone breaching the Act is liable to a maximum penalty of A$220,000 (US$121,000) per day for individuals and A$1.1 million (US$606,000) per day for corporate bodies.

Nonetheless, the Act does not prohibit on-line sports betting and lotteries. Instead, these activities are regulated by Australian state and territorial legislation. Generally, state and territorial legislation prohibits on-line sports betting and lotteries unless the operator is licensed in the relevant jurisdiction.

Self-regulation and government monitoring are introduced in the Act. Internet service providers are required to develop a code of practice relating to Internet gambling issues. If they fail to act, the Australian Broadcasting Authority may set industry standards that ensure the Internet service providers to provide customers with appropriate filtering software or similar devices to prevent access to prohibited sites.

The Authority can initiate investigations of interactive gambling activities and can also accept complaints from the public. It can also prevent interactive gambling service providers from targeting Australian customers by implementing a complaints-based command.

On July 12, 2004, the Australian Government made a decision against regulating betting exchanges following the review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, which include a wide range of issues including problem gambling. Foreign online betting exchanges will be able to seek licenses to operate in Australia after Federal cabinet decided not to amend the Interactive Gambling Act to ban them.