The world’s gambling market has grown tremendously. Internet gambling that began in 1996 is now a twelve billion dollar a year industry. Half of those revenues came from customers in the United States. The United States then did the unbelievable and passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibits financial institutions from processing transactions between the online gambling company and the player. The player can play virtual casino or bingo games if he does not want to become a looser. Immediately after the signing of the bill, the value of the gaming stocks fell on the FTSE. Sportingbet and Leisure and Gaming sold their U.S. operation for $1. Since then, online casinos have been increasing refusing new U.S. customers and closing the accounts of existing customers. The gaming companies that were in the U.S., like Poker Stars and others have departed, as the software makers slowly seal U.S. players out of the market. Now there are talks of mergers between companies who were once financially strong, and are now sitting overseas without a market. Internet gambling itself is not yet illegal in the United States, although there is talk of that happening. The British, who will enter the online casino market in 2007, watched as the huge U.S. market was cut off from the online gaming world. Another internet casino play little bit more roles.

The real losers here are the U.S. consumers. They are sealed out of a market that they basically made since U.S. players accounted for half of the industry’s revenues. Any U.S. online operators had to close their operations down. While the whole world enjoys online casino gambling, U.S. players sit at home and seethe.