SOURCE: Bloomberg

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They can also visit any number of legal casinos, poker rooms, racetracks or Off Track Betting centers, and play state lotteries.

The situation is, in short, a mess.

Unrealistic Bans

As America learned during Prohibition, some bans are unrealistic. The online gambling law shows that legislators weren't paying enough attention in history class.

At least Prohibition aimed to prevent the consumption of alcohol across the U.S. without exceptions.

Banning some types of online gambling while allowing exemptions for lotteries and horse racing is protectionism of the worst kind.

The law criminalized those it described as being ``in the business of betting'' and made it illegal to handle money for the purpose of online gambling. That means individuals still aren't breaching any federal law by placing bets.

The daily number of poker players online worldwide was about 34,000 in September, down less than half a percentage point from a year earlier, according to Dennis Boyko at PokerPulse.com in Vancouver.

Poker players online in the U.S. have dropped only slightly, said Boyko, who has monitored the number of online players since January 2003.

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