There will be no sleep for me tonight. I will drink as many cups of PG Tips tea as necessary to be able to stay awake and catch up on my articles. It's not that I haven't been trying to work, it's just that since Friday October 13th there has been a dirge of new information in the online gambling industry. In case you just crawled out from under your rock Friday the 13th was when President George W. Bush signed the Safe Port Bill which had a non sequitur amendment banning any and all financial institutions based in the US from depositing directly into online casinos, poker rooms, or sports books and also banned receiving funds from all internet casinos, poker rooms and sports books into any US based financial institutions.

This little beast of a bill has in one swoop wiped out the internet gambling industry as we once knew it. Yours truly has been given notice (hence my lack of serious effort in writing my articles on time, I know it's a terrible unprofessional way to end my days in this job but you must cut me some slack, I also have a teething 10 month old at home! Plus I have only 10 articles left – 6 days and 10 articles, including this one.)

Speaking of my 10 month old, this child has been teething, drooling, whining, and crying for the past month now whenever he isn't on me. The only time I have had free arms in the past month is when my husband is home and our son is in his arms. He will not accept anyone else. Even my mother-in-law is an unacceptable replacement. Imagine sitting at your desk with a 10 month old on your lap while you are attempting to read. He's grabbing at everything on your desk and banging on your keyboard. If you put him in his play pen he's crying immediately, starting before his tushy hits the cushion of the pen. Next month he starts day care, however it doesn't help my last 10 days of work. You'd think I would get a break at night, but you would be wrong. He sleeps in his bed until around 11:30 when he wakes up for a feed and then if you move him back he freaks out, so he's been sleeping with us. Tiny hands grasping the collar of my pajamas like his life depends on it, not letting go. I can't move, no turning to my back or the other side. Sleep has become nearly impossible. Truth be told, we also had my oldest sleep with us when he started teething, but for some reason I found that easier. Probably because I wasn't working his first year and I slept when he slept in the day time.

So I'm behind. It's a mix of baby exhaustion, brain freeze, and lack of new news. Ok, there has been some new news.

Betonsports settled with the Department of Justice, which didn't get anywhere near as many articles as I expected it to. In fact if I wasn't digging as hard as I was for information I could easily have skipped over it completely. Apparently David Carruthers, the now ex-CEO of Betonsports who was arrested in July for being an executive of an online sports book, has pleaded out and made a deal. Betonsports no longer accepts bets from players in the US and they let Carruthers go. Why did they waste the tax-payers money to arrest and try him in the first place? Most of the internet sports books have banned US residents since the law was signed (see above). Betonsports is a public company, they would have banned the US anyhow. Granted, no one knew that the law was going to pass, but still. If they had waited they needn't had to put anyone through any trouble.

Back to my 10 month old. We have been searching for a day care for him and it has been quite the chore. One place I like the woman in charge and I like the set up in her home, what I don't like are her hours. She simply isn't flexible. The other place we have found I like the woman in charge and I like her hours, but I don't like the set up in her home. It's simply too small. My son is almost walking and he loves space and being outside. She doesn't have a garden for the kids to play in. Pity. So I am still searching. Everyone I call is full up. Finding a day care is all about who you know. The best places don't advertise. They don't even have signs out front. You simply have to know they are there.

I suppose that is how it will be for US residents looking for an internet casino, sports book or poker room to play at. There will be no more advertising in the US. Legally they can still advertise their play for fun site, but there's a chance that this would get their play for real site blocked at the ISP level once the Department of Justice irons out all of the wrinkles in this law so most likely no places will spend the money. This means US residents will have to find places that will take them on their own. Hopefully we will both succeed in our tasks.

Posted on: November 15, 2006

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