Although the ban on online gambling has been in effect for over a year, since late 2006, US citizens continue placing wagers online. The authorities, on their behalf, continue pursuing the ban.

Most recently, US authorities announced the arrest of eight people for their involvement in a gambling website, based in Costa Rica, serving American users. Twelve men were charged altogether.

Six of the arrested men were picked up in New York, and the other two in Maryland and one in Massachusetts, all on the east coast of the US. They are said to have managed and profited millions of dollars in supporting online gambling over the web and phone.

The official charges are of gambling, conspiracy to engage in gambling and money laundering.

As sports bookies in the US could not process wagers by their customers, the website would offer offshore services for a weekly fee, which the bookies were charged. The fee ranged between 15 and 30 dollars per week per gambler.

The number of gamblers in the US does not seem to have dwindled. Many Americans continue to gamble online, an activity that is viewed by many as a freedom that cannot be taken from them, namely that of what they choose to do in their spare time, their privacy and with their own money.

The ban, though enforced, as in this specific case, does not stop the mass gambling trend. In spite of the arrests, it seems not to be very successful in moving toward the goal of eliminating online gambling, only of closing down one website or another.