SOPA Blackout Important for Online Gambling

Wednesday is the official day of protest over the US Federal Government's Stop Online Piracy Act, and although online gambling websites are not the target of this legislation, they will support their fellow internet websites from the sidelines.

Wikipedia, Reddit and other popular websites will black out for 24 hours, and instead of the usual website visitors will find only information about the dangers of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protest Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Other companies that oppose the bill are not blacking out because the cost of sacrifice of a full day of revenue is too great.

Google, although not blacking out entirely, is also protesting the bills though specific changes to the site that can be seen just by visiting. A spokeswoman for the company said that like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, Google opposes the bills because there are smarter ways to shut down rogue offshore websites without asking US companies to censore the internet.

The legislation these groups are protesting is intended to restrict access and payments to overseas-based websites that traffic in stolen or counterfeit - criminal activity which entertainment companies and industry groups say costs them billions of dollars in revenues each year.

However, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook and other net giants oppose this legislation, saying it will undermine and compromise the use of the Internet.

Although these bills do not impact online gambling sites directly, it is certainly close to home, as gaming websites have been struggling for almost six years now to overturn the 2006 federal law which effectively banned the practice in the United States.

Things are actually looking up on the online gambling front, since the US Department of Justice released an opinion last month allowing sports betting wagers to be taken across state lines.

Hopefully this ugly legislation threatening the way Americans use the internet is also withdrawn, and the world wide web will again become freer for all.