In the early 21st century gambling was sometimes called the new American pastime. By 2004, 36 states had legalized casino gambling as a way to stimulate their economies and create jobs, either commercially or specifically on Native American lands. Television shows featuring poker tournaments attracted high ratings, giving casinos and card rooms valuable free publicity. One annual tournament, the World Series of Poker, garnered widespread media coverage with its huge cash payouts—including a $5 million grand prize in 2004. As more casinos continued to open around the world and Internet gambling grew rapidly, the industry attracted millions of new gamblers.

GAMBLERS who use credit cards to place bets are being hit with extra fees and punitive rates of interest.

ON THE INTERNET-- Gambling and betting have always been prevalent on the Internet, but now, due to the increasing popularity of professional and celebrity poker, the Internet has seen a proliferation of gambling sites, and Internet poker rooms are more popular than ever.
Secure websites and reliable credit card transactions have made it safer for stay-at-home gamblers to participate in online casinos, but at the same time, these conveniences have fueled the economic disorders of compulsive gamblers.

So much for the U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is designed to halt the flow of the roughly $6 billion that flows each year from U.S. gamblers to foreign Internet casinos by officially barring credit card companies and other U.S. financial institutions from processing illegal wagers. The Justice Dept. has long maintained that online poker gambling, like sports betting, violates terms of the 1961 Wire Act.
But within hours of the new bill's signing, many people were back online, betting on hands of Texas Hold 'Em—and they were not alone. Many now wagering through PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com, both licensed by the Canadian Mohawk territory of Kahnawake and happily taking U.S. customers. (PokerStars also has a license with the government of the Isle of Man, where it is headquartered.) Both sites saw record numbers of players the weekend following the law's adoption, according to Louisiana's Casino City, which monitors traffic on online poker sites in its trade journals.