PRWeb to Block Online Gambling Websites

The PRWeb service is known far and wide as being one of the best online circulators of press releases currently available within the internet markets. People and companies from all over continue to use their services because they have the ability to generate some very impressive results. Unfortunately for one industry however, the PRWeb machine has gone the way of so many others and has decided to be more afraid of the US government than they are concerned with ensuring that they maintain good relations with the other online industries of the world.

That industry is the online gambling industry and just recently they were given the big turn down by the PRWeb operation. PRWeb reportedly received a cease and desist order from Washington DC in regards to their circulation of press releases from online gambling giants such as Ultimate Bet and Titan Poker. Because the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act ironically gives US authorities more power over facilitators of online gambling through secondary means within their borders (i.e. banks and media outlets) than it does over actual purveyors of online gambling content, PRWeb started to feel the heat and eventually decided to drop all of their online gambling clients. PRWeb states that they will provide such clients with a full refund, but the disappointment felt within the online gambling community has a lot more to do with principle than it does with any monetary compensation issues.

Specifically, PRWeb’s lack of recognition that poker is inherently different from other forms of gambling is what has caused Ultimate Bet representatives to publicly express the disappointment that they have in the website. One particular representative mentioned that he was disappointed that PRWeb did not recognize the difference between the skill game of poker and the luck games of the other online gambling institutions and mentioned that Ultimate Bet would be filing a letter asking PRWeb to reconsider their decision insofar as online poker is concerned. At the current moment in time however, there is no reason to think that online gambling press releases will ever be circulated by the PRWeb service again.

What makes this case so interesting is the fact that it shows an escalation on the part of the US government insofar as the crackdown on online gambling is concerned. Furthermore, it shows this crackdown happening under the new Obama administration as opposed to the old Bush one, suggesting that there are elements of the anti-online gambling stance within the US that actually transcend political ideology. When the US government is willing to curtail free speech rights (and there is arguably no free speech right held in higher esteem within the country than the right of the media to report on news), it is a plain indication that they view the issue very seriously.

To be fair, that angle of it is far more between the lines than the actual news story, but to people that are fond of conspiracy theories, it may very well portend something bigger than a crackdown coming from the US authorities in the near future.