Minnesota to telecoms: No gambling Web sites
May 4, 2009
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Alcohol and
Gambling Enforcement Division announced that it has served written notice to 11
national and regional telephone and Internet service providers instructing them
to prohibit access of all Minnesota-based computers to nearly 200 online
gambling websites.
Written notice was served to AT&T
Internet Services, San Antonio; Charter Communications, St. Louis; Comcast
Cable, Moorestown, N.J.; Direct TV, Los Angeles; Dish Network, Englewood.,
Colo.; Embarq and Sprint/Nextel, both of Overland Park, Kan.; Frontier
Communications, Stamford, Conn.; Qwest, Denver; Verizon Wireless, Bedminster,
N.J.; and Wildblue Communications, Greenwood Village, Colo.
“We are putting site operators and Minnesota online
gamblers on notice and in advance,” says John Willems, director of AGED.
“Disruption of these sites’ cash flow will negatively impact their business
models. State residents with online escrow accounts should be aware that access
to their accounts may be jeopardized and their funds in peril.”
Believed the first attempt by a state
to employ this federal statute to restrict access to online gambling sites, the
letters cites U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1084, (d); notices were delivered
Mon., April 27. Congress enacted the statute in 1961 in recognition of the need
for states to control illegal gambling activities and granted authority for use
of the statue to state law enforcement agencies.
Response from the notified ISPs is
expected within two to three weeks, at which time issues of non-compliance will
be referred to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Acknowledging the
effort as an initial sample, Willems anticipates the program expanding to
address thousands of sites, depending on compliance. He notes that the required
technology to restrict geographic access to particular sites is a relatively
straightforward procedure on the part of service providers.
In the written notices, AGED also
provided the sites’ telephone numbers and requested access to those numbers by
Minnesotans to be prohibited. For more than two decades, telecoms have shut
down telephone numbers at the request of law enforcement agencies when believed
to be involved in illegal activities, such as sports book-making telephone
numbers.
“In Minnesota, and for Minnesotans, the primary
issues are legality, state self-governance and accountability,” says Willems.
“In broader context, the long-running debate on online gambling continues to
raise significant issues, including absence of policy and regulation,
individual rights, societal impact, international fair-trade practices, and
funding for criminal and terrorist organizations.”
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