Online gambling is any type of gambling conducted over the internet. This includes casinos, online poker and sports betting. The first online gambling site opened for the public, was ticket selling for the unsuccessful German Light Years Racing in 1994. Gambling can be done by anyone with access to a personal computer, internet and credit cards. All that is needed is to login, make a bet and if the bet is successful the player will be entitled to winnings.
The US Federal Trade Commission is responsible for monitoring and advising the states on the implementation of their respective online gambling laws. They have constantly reminded both the players and the online gambling sites that they have a responsibility to play by the law. The US Department of Justice has been conducting a study to determine the profitability and the costs associated with online gambling. These online sites have been regularly inspected by the government and the results show that there are some problems with the online sites, which need to be solved. A special unit has been formed within the Department of Justice to monitor these online sites. The unit is currently looking into the online poker industry and investigating how states can protect their consumers.
Many states are already in operation with online gambling and are processing casinos for gaming. However some legal experts think that these online gambling sites are illegal because all gambling is illegal under the law. If the state opens up the online casinos they will probably be operated out of state and will therefore not be subject to any local laws. There is a chance that a jurisdiction could sue an individual who owns an online casino site for operating an unlicensed gambling site.
Most online sites offer different methods of payment and most online gambling is done with credit cards. There are also many online sites which accept payment through PayPal. It is very important for online gamblers to have a PayPal account so that they can pay for their gambling online sites without any problems. Some of the online gambling websites do accept e-gold and e-mintage as forms of payment but most of them do not accept these forms of payment. This means that the online gamblers have to have a valid PayPal or e-check account in order to be able to pay for their online gambling site.
Recently the online casinos have become a lot more transparent. In the past only the biggest online gambling sites were able to afford this kind of protection. But now things are different. Recently the House of Congress has passed a bill which states that online casinos should have to register and should reveal the clients that they are allowed to make payments to. In addition the online gambling websites have to post this information on a website. This website is called the Information Collection Assistance Program (ICAP).
ICAP makes it possible to trace the exact payment made to a particular online casino. For example if a player pays with his credit card for a full money and then the casino fails to send the player his winnings, ICAP allows you to check your records to find out whether the payment was sent by mistake or whether it is a genuine mistake. It is very important to remember that the House of Congress has passed a law which requires all online casinos to get registered under the ICAP scheme. So all online casinos should be registered under ICAP to ensure complete transparency. However if you do not have a ICAP registered casino account you may still be able to use other online gaming systems such as eCOGRA or Playtech, which are both recognized by the United States Department of Justice as well as the United States Gaming Commission.