The Deutsche Welle's online service cited that 200,000 to 290,000 Germans regularly play poker on the Internet, and spent around 1 million Euros gambling online in 2007, even though gambling online is a grey area of German law.  An article explained that in Germany, it's only legal to gamble for money in casinos, leaving the booming Internet market ina  grey area.  If it involves money, online gambling is against the law, but so far no one has been charged with a crime.  Germany's tax authorities have a monopoly on the gambling business and pocket more than half of the industry's earnings as corporate tax.  Online gambling, however, remains unregulated and profits circumvent state coffers. 
    I swear, online gambling is the worst; there's no social monitoring anymore.  Beginners can get themselves in serious debt by overestimating their abilities and mistaking skill for luck. 

If something is getting big in the U.S., it's only a question of time when it will become popular in other countries.  I wonder how our government taxes online gambling or if they even do...??

I think this is kind of like how downloading music is illegal, but barely anyone gets charged for it.