U.S. Declares Online Gambling Illegal

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Act was signed by the President making it illegal for banks and credit unions to process bets made online. The new federal law will force businesses to revisit their Web-use policies for online gambling. Use of these sites at work is clearly a legal liability threat and businesses should reduce their risks by using Internet monitoring or filtering software.

Melbourne, FL (PRWEB) October 16, 2006 -- On Friday, October 13, 2006, President Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act making it illegal for banks and credit unions to process bets made online. Online gambling has grown to be a multi-billion dollar industry over the past several years, and the laws are finally catching up to the technology.

The U.S. Department of Justice has held the view that online gambling is illegal under the Federal Wire Act of 1961 and has attempted to go after several gaming executives. The DOJ indicted BetonSports founder, Gary Kaplan and its CEO, David Carruthers, on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud for taking sports bets from U.S. residents. They arrested David Carruthers at a U.S. airport earlier this year.

Computer Crimes and the Respondent Superior Doctrine: Employers Beware

This new federal law forces all businesses to view employees’ visits to online gambling sites as a legal liability threat. Many companies may have seen little harm in allowing employees to access Web-based gambling sites on their break as long as it didn’t become a productivity drain. Others, however, have already been viewing such activity as legal liability risks and use Internet monitoring or filtering software to enforce policy and protect the company. No matter how companies viewed it in the past, it is now clearly a legal liability threat.

In addition to the new federal law, employers need to be aware of their local state laws on Internet gambling as well. For example, all forms of gambling are illegal in Hawaii and Utah. In 1998, Cynthia Haines gambled away $70,000 on the Internet at online gambling sites. When she couldn’t pay her credit card bills, her bank, Providian National Bank, sued her. She then filed a counterclaim against Providian and her credit card companies, Visa and MasterCard, claiming that they should have never accepted the charges because online gambling is illegal in California. Visa and MasterCard ended up settling with Haines.

According to Mark Ishman’s article, “Computer Crimes and the Respondent Superior Doctrine: Employers Beware,” if Haines had gambled away her money using her employer’s computer, the state of California could have prosecuted her employer for making online gambling available to her.

It is not uncommon for employees to visit online gambling sites at work. According to a June 2006 analysis of employee Web use at work by comScore Media Matrix, more than half of the page views by workers were to online gambling sites.

Online gambling is just one of a number of reasons why businesses and other organizations should use accurate Internet monitoring or filtering software to protect themselves from legal liability threats. According to Dennis McCabe, vice president of business development for Wavecrest Computing, “it is extremely important for companies to use an accurate, reliable product when monitoring Web use.” Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products are just that. Wavecrest’s Cyfin Reporter has been trusted by the U.S. Department of Justice for the last four years, and they recently renewed their license for a fifth year.

About Wavecrest Computing
Since 1996, Wavecrest has provided its clients with reliable employee Web use management software to help them prevent Web abuse, minimize security threats and legal liability risks, optimize bandwidth usage and improve workforce productivity. Wavecrest software is installed in over 3,500 organizations worldwide including the US Department of Justice, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Volvo, General Electric, British Telecom, Edward Jones, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and many others. For more information, visit www.wavecrest.net.

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