New State Legislation: 2
 
The state of Minnesota has taken immediate action towards the online casino industry. Their first move has been to prohibit online service providers to allow access to their customers on any online casino or internet gambling website. The authorities have sent out letters to the following media companies: Comcast Cable, Direct TV, Charter Communications, AT&T Internet Services, Embarq, Frontier Communications, Dish Network, Verizon Wireless, Wildblue Communications, Q West, Sprint/ Nextel and Frontier Communications. Those companies were told explicitly to prohibit their Minnesota resident customers from accessing any and all online casinos, effective immediately. All of this mess just means that there will be a lot of media coverage and opinions thrown out into the air.

In the case of Minnesota there will definitely be some online casinos that will try to get out of any and all legal repercussions by withdrawing their online casino from the market completely. The Director for Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division, John Willems had an interview recently with the Minneapolis Star in which he reveals the intentions of his organization. He said that all of the banned online casinos received their proper notice and so have the online casino players. He also made very clear that they are expecting to target more websites in the future. When asked what the purpose behind all of the banning of these internet gambling websites, Mr. Willems was full of opinions.

Willems said that there are so many issues that need to be dealt with in the online casino industry. Some of those topics that he is primarily concerned with are state governance, individual rights, societal impact, legality, fair trade practices and accountability which includes regulation. The organization is currently waiting on a response from all of the companies involved and they gave them 2-3 weeks to respond to their notices. After that point all of the issues at hand will be dealt with by the Federal Communications Commission.