To others it is all about the inevitable, unstoppable march of the Internet. The nature of the Internet is that it ignores boundaries. Online gambling sites are based in 50 countries, and most operate out of the Caribbean. As the number of sites proliferate, so do advertisements on the Web, radio and even television to attract Internet gamblers. That increasing public exposure, combined with more relaxed attitudes toward gambling in the last decade, has served only to increase the confusion over the legality of Internet gambling.
Most experts say no.
But it is not that simple. No laws definitively prohibit casinos or sports books on the Web. That has created a gray area, a potential legal loophole. At issue is the legal reach of the Wire Communications Act a 1961 federal law that could not have envisioned today's Internet. The wire act outlaws sports betting over the telephone or telegraph.