Will Online Gaming Ban Fuel Crime?

No, not those kind of games, we're talking about online gambling here. A recent bill that aims to ban online gambling may sound like a good idea to some, but John J. Farmer, New Jersey's attorney general, says the ban has the potential to drive folks to unregulated web sites for their gambling needs. Farmer not only feels that the bill is a bad idea, but will also be short lived.

"Farmer, now a partner in law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, said he studied the legality of online gaming in 1999, when the State of New Jersey was concerned about criminal operators. "In 1999, there were operators taking bets and not paying when people won," he said. "What'll happen now is this bill will leave the field open to those very people who caused those problems in the first place -- the fly-by-night operators."