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13 October 2006, President signs H.R. 4954:  Security and Accountability For Every Port Act ("SAFE Port Act"), which SAFE Port Act incorporated Title VIII--Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.  Title VIII added in conference committee.  Earlier, the House passed the SAFE Port Act: ayes-421, nays-2 and not voting-9 and the Senate passed the SAFE Port Act: ayes-98, nays-0 and not voting-2.

29 September 2006, a judge cleared a former British betting-company executive to return to London after New York Governor George Pataki declined to sign a warrant extraditing him to Louisiana, where he was charged with illegal online gambling.  Offshore Internet gambling, however, is not a crime in New York, and Governor Pataki said the state law only permitted extradition if the accused person was physically present in the place where he is accused of breaking the law.

 

Gaming in Illinois

Gambling is a big business in the State of Illinois, generating billions in revenues in commercial casinos, horse racing tracks and the state lottery.  Apparently, hypocritical attitudes toward gambling are as prevalent here, as they are elsewhere.  According to the American Gaming Association’s 2006 State of the States: The AGA Survey of Casino Entertainment, Illinois as of December 2005 was the home to nine (9) commercial casinos (riverboat or dockside) and seven (7) horse racing tracks. Gross commercial casino gaming revenues of $1.8 billion resulted in $0.8 billion in tax revenues.  The lottery generated $1.85 billion in revenues in the lottery’s 2005 fiscal year, with six lottery games and contributed more than a half billion to the state treasury.

Criminal Code:   Illinois

Illinois is one of only a handful of states to specifically prohibit Internet gambling.  The Illinois Criminal Code states that a person commits gambling when he/she:

"Knowingly establishes, maintains, or operates an Internet site that permits a person to play a game of chance or skill for money or other thing of value by means of the Internet or to make a wager upon the result of any game, contest, political nomination, appointment, or election by means of the Internet." See 720 ILCS 5/28-1(a)(12).

"A person commits gambling when he plays or offers a game if chance or skill for money or other thing of value, unless excepted...."   See 720 ILCS 5/28-1.

Obviously, neither Internet gambling or social gambling provides the opportunity for the state set the pot odds against the citizen gambler or tax the skilled winner.

 
 

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Text of  Illinois Gambling law.  Click on following logo: