Mission

Legal@PokerPulse is amassing a sizable, searchable information base of key legal players and authoritative research on international Internet gambling and trade law that may help, at least, to narrow some of the questions regarding the future of the online gaming industry. Click here for more.

You Asked Us:
Thinking of starting an Internet gambling site? Visit our You Asked Us forum for expert advice, including information on jurisdictions that welcome industry operators plus tips on how to obtain legal counsel in your area and what to bring to your first meeting. Thinking of starting up without legal advice? Think again. Check out our FAQs section here for a quick look at just a few of the issues currently facing the industry.

Should the U.S. legalize and regulate Internet gambling as the UK did recently with the Gambling Bill?
The Cross-Border Betting Dispute between Antigua and the U.S. represents a considerable motivational force for such an initiative, to say the least. Visitors who support the proposition are invited to assist Antigua’s legal team by submitting photos of U.S. gambling ads. Find out more on how you can help here.

Who is Mario Cisneros and why was he still threatening to take out the Internet even after the Yes vote on Prop 64, which curtailed California’s infamous super-sized lawsuits – or so we thought. Scroll down here to read the decision Nov. 2/05 by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer barring a claim by Internet gamblers for restitution due to what the court called “a broad, specific and unwavering public policy against using the courts of the State of California to recover losses incurred in gambling” – even if those losses were incurred in what California considers to be illegal gambling.

Tribal Gaming:
Movies like Lone Star and Adaptation opened the world's eyes to the rich and fascinating history of Florida's Seminole Tribe, yet the U.S. Supreme Court pulled up the welcome mat when members ventured to the capital. Find out here what a divided court had to say about the rights of Congress to enact legislation affecting

The U.S., Canada and beyond:
More than a year ago, we began tracking prosecutions under the broad U.S. federal wire fraud statute, a law we felt might be especially relevant to Internet gambling service providers worldwide. Follow the links at our Canadian forum under Pasquantino, FEAR and the long arm of U.S. wire fraud to find out how the U.S. managed to overturn one of the cornerstones of common law in a liquor smuggling case which, in turn, helped pave the way to the Illinois prosecution of British Lord Conrad Black.

Anti-terrorist legislation and contentious trade issues throughout the world (see our Caribbean forum and our Canadian forum for starters) are making certain borders increasingly surly if not outright hostile. What happens when an Internet transaction involving two countries becomes the subject of prosecution and the countries provide widely different penalties for the same offence? Follow our coverage of the U.S. bid to extradite Canadian pot activist Marc Emery here.

Scroll down here for a link to an interview with Emery’s lawyer, John Conroy, Q.C., on CBC Radio news program, As It Happens.

Learn more about Canada’s extradition process from our annotated step-by-step guide near the bottom of this page.

In Canada: Despite a federal-provincial regulatory scheme which appears to prohibit such an enterprise, mavericks operating Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT) continue to play host to a number of Internet gambling sites. Click here for a few novel arguments that actually favor the Mohawks’ initiative, including a well-documented tradition of gambling among First Nations set out in part at The Roll and Shuffle.

Canadian First Nations:
Learn more about the dynamic community of Kahnawake here.

Caribbean:
The global view: Globalization has come under heavy fire for authorizing leaders to contract out of domestic legislation, and no one is feeling the heat more than the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), which has until April 3/06 to come up with a strategy that will enable the U.S. to meet its obligations toward Antigua with respect to Internet gambling services. A ruling by WTO-appointed arbitrator Claus-Dieter Ehlermann discusses the hurdle facing Congress, which must somehow find a way to fix federal laws purporting to prohibit I-gaming. Although changing contentious gambling legislation may be difficult, “doing nothing” may prompt other countries to launch similar complaints.

Find links to the arbitrator’s ruling and other key documents in the Cross-Border Betting Dispute between Antigua and the U.S. here.

Scroll down here to find out which nations besides Antigua may have a beef against discriminatory U.S. gambling laws.