While the cyber-world is enjoying all the best qualities of free-trade policies across the real world, some countries were adamant in not seeing the reality of reach by the Internet.  After the advent of Internet marketing, all the conservative concepts related to trade and commerce have gone with the wind and the stigma to look the trading community down upon with suspicion has been over-thrown.  Curbs and curtailments in whatever subject of human interest will be only counter-productive inasmuch as people will never relish imposition of control of sorts on them.  The first reaction will only be to defy the ban and if not possible, to circumvent the same by innovative and clever tactics of human psychology.

Take the instance of online gambling.  Gambling industry is age old and perhaps as old as the most obvious first profession.  Innumerable ways of gambling from centuries back are continued to be adopted and will go on for centuries to come in some kind or the other, simply because it is related with human passion.  So the most reasonable and consequential transformation of gambling took place when Internet marketing caught up with the world we are living in.  Online gambling sites came into existence to meet the ever-increasing demand of the people and they were over and above any limitations whatsoever virtually.

Since there are no barriers or boundaries as prevalent in our lands and oceans, no country on earth can claim any part of the cyber-world as their own.  At best they can identify the websites with words and texts as emanating from a particular country, that’s all.  To enter this part of their country (?) no one needs a visa, passport, immigration checking and so on.  Simply by clicking the mouse, sitting at the comfort of their drawing room, anybody can jolly-well enter these destinations.  While so, making enactments prohibiting the citizens of their nation from entering the online gambling sites can never bring forth the desired results.

In this context the U.S. laws prohibiting their citizens from indulging in gambling games online and crippling the financial transactions of wager through their banks, have come under continuous criticism by neutral parties, financial servicing industry leaders, groups and associations. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of the U.S. law enforcing agencies has come under severe brick-batting from various quarters, as it tries to prevent adults from indulging in a certain activity, much to the detriment of civil liberty and individual freedom. 

Interestingly ever since the promulgation of UIGEA, millions of American citizens are defying the ban and indulging in online gambling.  The argument of inability to subject the online gambling sites towards tax revenue collection has been shattered by the latest tax revenue analysis report, prepared by the eminent financial consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers.  The findings of this report have come up as an eye-opener, pointing out the utter failure of the UIGEA in following an insensible approach.  Instead of killing the milking cow – the online gambling sites – which will continue to grow anyway, the report points out that appropriate rules and regulations to tap the revenue from these online gambling sites should be sensibly adopted.  The report projects a whopping tax collection of $8.7 billions to $42.8 billion in the first ten years! And this is not by levying new taxes but by plugging the loopholes in the existing tax laws, adds pep to this fantastic analysis report.