Prediction Market Site InTrade Bans US Customers

MyFirstNameIsPaul writes "In an announcement dated Monday, Nov 26, 2012, Dublin-based InTrade stated 'that due to legal and regulatory pressures, InTrade can no longer allow U.S. residents to participate in our real-money prediction markets.' The Washington Post reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint in federal court against InTrade for 'illegally facilitating bets on future economic data, the price of gold and even acts of war,' demonstrating just how far the long arm of U.S. law can reach."

Comments

Re:Yes, a truly shocking abuse of gov't power.

[Bigby]

How are they stopping US residents? I assume they will just block US IP addresses. If that is the case, then the US is acting on InTrade (probably indirectly) in order to stop business from happening directly between the US and InTrade. It does not stop US residents currently outside of the US or those using proxies outside the US. So no, it likely isn't a US law being applied to US residents. It is a law being applied to foreign governments, which are applying their laws to domestic companies, which are then blocking US traffic, whether the traffic is from a US resident or non-US resident.