So I'm wondering today if it's just a coincidence that I was struck with a nasty case of "dire rear" (as my mom would say) the same day our nation's leaders agreed to make us (re: online poker players) all criminals? Anyone checking out real estate in Canada yet?
Following his thwarted attempts with the Defense Bill, Sen. Frist succeeded in attaching his anti-internet gambling legislation to HR 4954 aka the Port Security Bill which was passed in the wee hours this morning. How far-reaching the effect of this will be remains to be seen. The President has 10 days to sign the Bill, which he will, and then there's a 270 day time limit to knock out the regs. There's much speculation as to what parts of the new law go into effect immediately.
At first glance what this means is that financial institutions are going to bear the brunt of the law. It will be illegal for your bank, for instance, to allow you to transfer money to Neteller and then deposit to an online site. However, it appears that there is no provision for the reverse process - ie. you would be able to transfer from your online account to Neteller then to your bank.
What the major vehicle for online transfers, Neteller, will do is anyone's guess. My guess is that Neteller will end up blocking tracsactions from US accounts. They are a publicly traded company and have shareholders to answer to. I'm not going to panic, though. My funds wil remain where they are until I can get a better idea of how this will shake out.
For more discussion, 2+2 Forums has several threads on the subject:
Mr. K answeres questions
270 days
Breakdown of the ammendment
