Minnesota State attacks Online Bingo sites.
5th May, 2009
It is well known and accepted that online bingo brings joy to the thousands across the globe. However, some 200 sites have been blacklisted by officials from Minnesota State.
According to sources, the director of Minnesota Department of Public Safety wrote letters to more than 10 Internet Service Providers and telephone providers, asking them to block more than 200 websites.
The letter allegedly claims that the sites are providing illegal gambling services to the Minnesota population.
Bingo sites targeted included Foxy bingo, Lucky Player Bingo, Newcastle Bingo, Ruby Bingo and Twinkle Bingo.
The list has been slammed by UK based sites, who feel they have been wrongly accused of operating their sites illegally, despite them having high security measures to block players, including IP blocking and credit card checks.
Unfortunately being blacklisted is also likely to have adverse effects on these sites search engine optimisation, along with restricting access to some players outside of the US, as so much internet traffic is routed through the US.
There is some hope for UK based bingo sites though, as it is very unlikely that ISP’s are likely to block these sites as not only is it morally unfair, the blocking of sites is suggested to be illegal under the US constitution.
Senator Pat Garofalo also came to bingo sites aid when he introduced legislation to have the letter withdrawn, and added: “The Department of Public Safety has to have better things to do with their time than to go after a college kid in his dorm room or some guy sitting in his basement spending a couple of hours playing online poker. Demanding that a private-sector Internet service provider block access to websites is not a proper function of our state government.”
By Rommon
