Internet Casinos: A Sure Bet for Money Laundering

Since the end of the Second World War, American society has seen the emergence of technology promising to make life easier, better and longer lasting. The more recent explosion of the Internet is fulfilling the dreams of the high‐tech pundits as it provides global real‐time communication links and makes the world's knowledge universally available. Privacy concerns surrounding the development of the Internet have mounted, and in response, service providers and website operators have enabled Web users to conduct transactions in nearly complete anonymity. While anonymity respects individual privacy, it also facilitates criminal activities needing secrecy. One such activity is money laundering, which is now being facilitated by the emerging Internet casinos industry. These casinos can be physically located anywhere with websites available worldwide. Internet casinos were a target of legislation by the US Congress, but the legislation, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, failed to pass. So, at the moment, Internet casinos are a virtually unregulated mechanism for laundering illegal funds.