PayPal Pays Up...whats to stop this from happening to NETELLER

Dante · Jul 27, 2003

EBay Inc.'s PayPal unit agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges it aided in illegal offshore and online gambling activities, the U.S. attorney in St. Louis said.

The $10 million represents a forfeiture of money PayPal received from processing the transactions, U.S. Attorney Raymond W. Gruender said in an e-mailed press release.

EBay bought PayPal, which enables users to send and receive payments through credit cards or bank accounts, in October for $1.5 billion and shut down the company's gambling business because of regulatory issues. PayPal illegally transmitted money in violation of the federal Wire Wager Act as well as various state laws prohibiting online gambling from October 2001 through November 2002, according to the settlement.

San Jose, California-based EBay disclosed the settlement in its earnings release today. It said the settlement would be included as an adjustment to its purchase price of PayPal and not as a charge against earnings.

EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove declined to comment beyond the release. EBay is the world's largest Internet auctioneer, and recently announced a 2-for-1 stock split after record profits.http://www.onlinecasinonews.com/ocnv2_1/article/article.asp?id=3734

eh · Jul 27, 2003

Neteller is Canadian so the US will have to get more creative in puttin the squeeze on them.

Dante · Jul 27, 2003

good point EH. I just hope canada NUTS UP and does not allow that shit to happen to them

TTinCO · Jul 27, 2003

Neteller is going to price themselves out of the market, Sbuxx appears to be screwing themselves out of the market with their CS (even though Anthony has been top notch in my dealings).

The question is, what's left when they choke out WU?????

Dante · Jul 27, 2003

exactly TT...scary

TTinCO · Jul 27, 2003

Dante, it's beyond scary.....and I don't have a whole lot of faith in the RCMP stopping the US when they decide to show up.

This is the piece of the pie that can nuke the US players market....and easily.

Woody0 · Jul 27, 2003

We have government issued marijuana and gay marriages, both due to our court system interpreting our Bill of Rights and forcing the government to implement these actions.

So why are you worrying that any U.S. Attorney will be able to act in any way to influence our independent courts when they are themselves leading our government in support of the people's rights?

TheGeneral+ · Aug 2, 2003

Does Neteller have the balance to survive if it were somehow made to stop transferring funds for us gamblers?

Woody0 · Aug 2, 2003

I guess no-one outside the company knows the financial state of NETeller.

However FirePay was taken over some time ago by a German financial outfit. I suspect that if NETeller ran into cash flow problems they could also easily arrange a takeover with European interests given their customer base.

In any case its not NETeller but the US banks that would be forced to stop transactions. I have a non-resident US bank account and similarly US citizens can hold Canadian accounts. NETeller will now accept funds from CAN $ accounts so all you need is a Canadian bank account that you can use as an intermediary if need arises. Moving money around is so easy these days with the Internet. I have an account with an online exchange broker that allows me to move money between my US, Canadian and UK accounts as well as make payments in these currencies into any bank account.

Finally I think all this concern is premature since their are real problems with the Senate bill abrogating State's rights.

punterpuppy · Aug 2, 2003

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by eh?:
Neteller is Canadian so the US will have to get more creative in puttin the squeeze on them.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If Neteller's Canandian flag provides it with independence from the agendas of U.S. Federal agencies, then why does Neteller require that U.S. citizens provide a U.S. Social Security Number as a requirement to open a Neteller account? [Neteller itself claims that this is a requirement of the U.S. Patriot's Act].

Honestly, I would like to know the answer to this. Perhaps someone from Neteller can respond.

-punter puppy

suetoneous · Aug 2, 2003

Danta, Paypal was a US based Company. Neteller, of course, is not. US laws don’t apply to them. But when this new anti-gaming law becomes law, Neteller will leave the US market.

The bill that sailed thru the Senate Banking Comm. was only targeted toward $$$ transferring businesses, not gamblers. Still, we’ll (US gamblers) have only W/U as I see it. Too much hassle for me to set up a foreign Bank account. I think I’ll just retire…

Woody0 · Aug 2, 2003

punter puppy, as a US citizen any financial transfers exceeding $10,000 have to be reported to the IRS which uses your SSN as an identifier.

Under the Patriot Act "regulations implement the provision in the USA PATRIOT Act that requires trades and businesses to report cash transactions of more than $10,000 (or two or more related transactions involving more than $10,000) and certain transactions involving monetary instruments to Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)."

NETeller has to obtain this information if it is to operate it's business in the US.

The "land of the free" disappeared with the passage of this act.

www.cappersnetwork.com · Aug 2, 2003

As far as legality and the patriot act and the kyl bill all go I don't really know. But just on the basics I would have to say this wouldn't happen to Neteller for the simple fact that gaming industry is their main client.

For PayPal this wasn't the case. Neteller is geared around gaming and PayPal orignally was geared around the online auction arena and just ended up being a viable gaming option.

Neteller may eventually cave to US pressure but I would have to say that they would never get rid of gaming altogether as that is their bread and butter clientel.

MC

TheGeneral+ · Aug 2, 2003

If neteller is primarily geared around gaming then all of those deposits into my banking account from neteller sure would bring on reason to think I may be red flagged for to many neteller transactions right?

oldmantime · Aug 2, 2003

General -- You say: "IF Neteller....." Uh--a question for you and the forum, exactly what else has anyone used Neteller for?"

On the positive side of that it just goes to show how high the demand is for their service.

www.cappersnetwork.com · Aug 2, 2003

Not real sure on that one General, I guess it depends on if there is some reason for the Government to be looking at you in the first place.

I think people are too paranoid in general about banking, gambling and the Government. That is not to say there isn't reason for concern but I think that everyone would agree that the magic # is 10k. You keep it below that and don't get into a pissing contest with the bank manager and I can't see why there would ever be a reason to look at someone's banking practices.

I don't think that the Government just arbitrarily starts looking into peoples bank accounts. I am pretty sure some other factor would prompt that as part of an investigation. I don't think it would be the starting point.

Of the however many billions that are wagered by however many millions of people every year, the people that get investigated (not even pinched) are few and far between.

MC

TheGeneral+ · Aug 2, 2003

Thanks Michael.

Everyone should beware of their own banks rules. For years I was under the impression that $10,000 was the number too, but a couple months ago I found that the bank has a magic number of $2000. So each person should look into their banks rules and regs.

oldmantime · Aug 2, 2003

General,
Are U saying for your bank it is $2,000 per transaction or per year (or something in between)?
It's allready been established once today that I'm naive, so go easy. I'm still taking it very hard that Ken's name is not his real name, etc..
But live and learn.

TheGeneral+ · Aug 2, 2003

LOL.

I am saying that if i go and deposit $2000 at my bank they reserve the right to turn this information into whatever organation they feel appropriate, maybe IRS. Maybe because it is a federal Credit Union.

oldmantime · Aug 2, 2003

Ok--Sounds like once per day to me. I was thinking of Neteller's limits per day and how that works. It doesn't affect me as the max I've done is 500. anyway.
The B of America caters to Neteller from all I've read on this forum. But so did PayPal. (I know non Us Company) But the US has Become the Nation that The WORLD fears sad to say.