Internet Gambling: Overview of Federal Criminal Law

This book presents a review of the federal criminal statutes implicated by conducting illegal gambling using the Internet. It also discusses some of the constitutional and practical difficulties associated with prosecuting illegal Internet gambling and closes with a summary of the proposed Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (S.474). Gambling is primarily a matter of state law, reinforced by federal law in instances where the presence of an interstate or foreign feature might otherwise frustrate the enforcement policies of state law. State officials and others have expressed concern that the Internet may be used to conduct illegal gambling. Illicit Internet gambling implicates six federal criminal statutes. It is a federal crime to (1) conduct an illegal gambling business, 18 USC 1955; (2) use the telephone or telecommunications to conduct an illegal business; (3) use the facilities of interstate commerce to facilitate conducting an illegal gambling operation; (4) commit a related series of these gambling crimes to acquire or operate an interstate commercial enterprise; (5) launder the proceeds from an illegal gambling business or to plow them back into the business; or (6) spend over $10,000 of the proceeds from an illegal gambling operation at any one time or place. Although prosecution of illegal Internet gambling will likely encounter constitutional challenges, practical difficulties imposed by offshore operations, encryption, remailers and the like will probably pose a more substantial obstacle.