Gambling Online Legally in the US

Americans, get out your check books. You can now gamble again on line. However, there are no cards or roulette wheels involved, just stocks, shares, and pork bellies.

Thousands of Americans gamble online every day. However, they're not playing Texas holdem or blackjack, but they are gambling nonetheless, and the stakes are high.

Ask anyone with a stock portfolio whether they're gambling, and the standard answer is likely to be in the negative. They'll claim they're investing, or putting money away for a rainy day. The truth is, they're gambling with their money and there are currently no curbs in place to control their activities.

The economic news of recent have only made this clearer.

How it works
Many Americans go online every day and make their choices of stocks and shares to buy and sell. Some they hold, some they drop, but whether this is any different from picking a number on the roulette table is open to debate. Online stock trading has exploded in popularity over the past decade, and it's now easier than ever to set up a trading account with any of the dozens of online trading operations.

One of the biggest is E-Trade, which doesn't call itself a casino, but an "online financial services company." Anyone can place their hard-earned cash into one of their trading accounts and start playing the stock, commodity, and other financial markets.

Virtual trading
It's not just stocks that can be traded on line, but just about everything. You can buy and sell currencies, precious metals, oil products, bonds, futures, and options. There seems to be no limit to the choice of things to trade, and no restrictions on what to buy or sell either.

Many family and religious groups are lobbying Congress to place curbs on this free market activity, but it's unlikely to succeed. There are probably just too many senators sitting on Capitol Hill (or should that be Capital Hill?) who probably have their own online trading accounts. So, if you're an American and your Congress won't let you play poker on line, then why not open a trading account and start trading pork bellies. It's legal!