Internet freedom is likely to be threatened by two enactments namely the PIPA or Protect Intellectual Property Act and the SOPA or the Stop Online Piracy Act. Although these two actions had been temporarily shelved, it would indeed be interesting to analyze the consequences that they could have otherwise had if they were made legal. There are no chances of there being an immediate voting on these proposed enactments and it is possible that they would be significantly changed eventually before voting takes place.
The effects of these laws on online casino gambling sites will not be felt at once; however, the fact remains, that when the laws get altered, they may lead to future problems for the casino industry flourishing in the country. This is because these laws will bring them a degree of censorship which is likely to revolutionize the ways of the Internet as it functions today and this was bound to have far reaching consequences.
Had these proposed enactments been passed as laws, the US Attorney General could get court orders forcing servers, payment processors and advertisers, blog sites and search engines to blacklist those websites which were suspected to be violating or infringing copyright laws. So this measure would have effectively given third parties like Internet Service Providers and financial institutions, the power to police the Internet gambling world.
Such stringent measures had earlier been adopted to block some gambling websites. This kind of censorship on the Internet may spell doom for the gambling industry in the course of time. These bills, according to Chief Legal Officer of Google, could make it simpler to sue all law-abiding American companies. Moreover, this measure was not enough to eliminate pirate sites because these websites could simply alter their addresses to continue their illicit activities.
Gambling in Asia
Gambling on the internet has become a rage all across the world, whether in countries which have legalized it or in those that have not yet regulated or legalized it. Although there are many nations where internet gambling has been held as illegal, thousands continue to participate in these games. So, there are efforts being made by these countries to at least regulate internet gambling since this has not been legally accepted.
In the Asia Pacific region as well, internet gambling has witnessed a sporadic growth and the PWC report recently came up with certain fascinating facts. The report by Price Waterhouse Coopers reveals the possibility of the Asian gambling industry growing from a $34.4 billion industry to a whopping $79.3 billion industry in the next five years. Given this figure, there is the need to legalize online gambling in some of the Asian countries.
A gaming analyst, Jonathan Galaviz, feels that since people would, in any case, practice illegal gambling, it was wiser to tax it instead of letting unlicensed operators amass all the revenues. He mentioned that in Singapore for instance, although online gambling was illegal, it had grown remarkably in the past year. Therefore, according to him, the time has arrived for governments to engage in researching this issue deeply and come up with thoughtful discussions on gambling policies.