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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."
The Feds' problem is that it's effectively a futures/options market in many respects, and such instruments are to be traded on regulated exchanges. Intrade is not so regulated, thus they are being excluded from the US market.
I, for one, am very glad these unlicensed options traders are getting stamped out! There's no room in the economy for these shenanigans! Just think what could happen if people started massively trading options on unregulated exchanges - people would start speculating, maybe betting on, say, housing prices going up or down, and before you know it, we could have a housing assets bubble that would burst, bring down the economy and require massive government bailouts! I'm so glad that options trading is restricted only to regulated, licensed exchanges where such things couldn't ever happen......
The lesson here is this: if you're a small person trying to speculate - that's bad! If you're a giant investment bank trying to speculate - go right ahead, just as long as your dealer^H^H^H exchange is "regulated".
No, US law is being applied to a non-US company because they offered services to US residents.
In a sane setup, the US regulators would go and prosecute US residents who used illegal services, not foreign companies with foreign owners who are not in US jurisdiction. However, prosecuting lots of ordinary Americans is not politically attractive to these sorts of regulatory bodies, so they try and impose US law on foreigners instead. Now maybe these InTrade employees will have to avoid ever flying near the USA again in case their plane is forced to land and they're arrested.
The key word is right in the summary "pressure". Think of how MS packages windows for euro use, yep the door swings both ways. They didn't have to ban U.S. customers, but rather than dealing with the U.S. , they chose to do so, just like google, MS, and a plethora of other companies have in the past. This is hardly news.
I had money down at InTrade betting that this was going to happen. Now how am I supposed to get my money!?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The US doesn't ban gambling, they protect the government's monopoly of it.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Err, with rare exceptions, most national laws apply to people (citizens, residents, and visitors) within the national borders, but don't apply to people currently residing or visiting a different country. As a quick example, it's illegal for U.S. citizens, residents, and visitors to possess marijuana while in the U.S., but it's not against U.S. law for them to possess marijuana while in the Netherlands (unless Netherlands law makes it illegal).
So in this case, blocking by U.S. IP address effectively stops people in the U.S. from doing something illegal for people in the U.S. to do, while not preventing those in other countries (including U.S. citizens in other countries) from doing that same thing if it's legal where they currently are.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
"Listen, the government gave you a choice between Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs in the last election, so you can't complain that Goldman Sachs is raping your future!"
Yes, that follows logically . . .
Since it's The Washington Post, they buried the lead at the very very end of TFA.
Monday's complaint includes charges that TEN violated that earlier settlement. The company used Intrade to offer illegal options including on the future prices of gold, changes in the unemployment rate and a measure of U.S. economic output, the complaint said. It said TEN failed to provide the pop-up notices mandated in the 2005 order.
Intertrade had already been charged with the exact same offense, had agreed to stop doing so, but didn't.
Somehow this is an issue with intrusive, authoritarian governments?
/And I don't think anyone is arguing that commodities futures should not be regulated, because they would be wrong.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
"Err, with rare exceptions, most national laws apply to people (citizens, residents, and visitors) within the national borders, but don't apply to people currently residing or visiting a different country. As a quick example, it's illegal for U.S. citizens, residents, and visitors to possess marijuana while in the U.S., but it's not against U.S. law for them to possess marijuana while in the Netherlands..."
But the U.S. House of Representatives did pass a bill last year to reverse exactly that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/us-drug-policy-war-congress_n_998993.html
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr313
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
"So you think the US can stop you from purchasing wine while in Italy on vacation?... No, but that's an absolutely fucking retarded comparison. 1). Purchasing wine is not illegal in the US or Italy. 2). The transaction occurs on Italian soil, therefore the participants are subject to Italian law."
So do you think this bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year (HR 313: criminalize any drug activity by U.S. citizens overseas, even if legal in the foreign country) is valid or not?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr313
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes