Over the past two years or so we have featured many articles relating to the US ban on online gaming. In that time many of you have contacted us asking how exactly do the American authorities insure their citizens do not play online?
Do they use a Chinese style internet blocking system identifying sites with specific banned words and producing a software device which spits them out? The answer is an emphatic no.
When devising the prohibitive and ultra conservative policy to ban online gambling George Bush’s advisers realised that policing the internet would be a mammoth and possibly fool hardy task.
But how does it work elsewhere?
In China they use a technology called Golden Shield. Basically this system scans data flowing across its section of the net for banned words or addresses.
There are five gateways which connect China to the internet and the filtering happens as data is passed through those ports.
When the filtering system spots a banned term it sends instructions to the source server and destination PC to stop the flow of data.
The dynamic nature of filtering in China gives the government more control over content and means the authorities can react to news events.
It has been called 'just-in-time filtering' and is being employed more widely around the world in oppressive regimes.
While this security system works in countries under daily oppression it would be almost surly destined to fail in a Western democracy even if it is the United States we’re talking about.
As part of the law banning online gambling US legislators made it illegal for banks and credit card companies to process online gaming payments from the US.
One would think that there were ways around this especially for non US based online sites. However the Republican Government have been vigorous in dealing with those who break the relatively new law.
At the time of the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act” being passed in the Congress the Republican Majority Leader Bill First said “ Gambling is a serious addiction that undermines the family, dashes dreams and frays the fabric of society.” Amazing that for a man named Mr. First he was the last in line when his maker was handing out the characteristics of reason, common sense and objectivity.
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