Just as many others have done recently Britain's culture secretary made a comparison between the online gambling ban and the failed ban on Alcohol in the 1920's on Friday as she was preparing to host an international summit on online gambling being held next week.
She warned that by banning internet gambling they will just be helping out the unregulated online casinos just like prohibition helped the speakeasies that opened up all over the country to cover the demand of alcohol that as being denied to the people by the government.
The US Congress blindsided the online gambling industry last month when they added a rider to a bill to increase the security at American ports. The bill makes it illegal for banks and other American financial institutions from transferring money to accounts for the purpose of settling gambling debts. The bill was then signed into law by President George W Bush on Friday the 13th.
The online gambling ban if effective will cut the amount made by online casinos in half since American online gamblers account for about half the people in the word online gambling.
Many of the industries experts have speculated that not only will this gambling ban not be effective, but it will increase the amount of non legitimate online casinos currently operating, and the US says some of this money is going to fuel global terrorism and that the ban will make it harder for them to operate, but this move will make it easier for them to make money and not the opposite as the Americans were hoping.