Costa Rica Hit Hard After Online Gaming Ban

Costa Rica has been hit extremely hard with the controversial United States crackdown on the $12 billion online gambling industry. Earning it's name of the "Las Vegas of the Internet", Costa Rica was very well known for their large concentration of gaming companies in the world.

Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier College in Southern California, also lending expert on gaming laws, said "The Golden Age is definitely over."

According to Eduardo Agami, president of an online gaming trade association in Costa Rica, ever since the U.S. began it's crackdown on the gambling industry, at least 20 online gaming companies have closed down or are planning to relocate to places such as Malta.

''The companies have to make a greater effort to stay afloat,'' Agami said. ``That's a consequence of this invasion-like attack on the industry.''

Thousands have already been laid off, and in this country where nearly 1 in 5 people live in the poverty level, hundreds are now earning even lower wages because of the gaming industry's recession.

Meanwhile, last year a law was passed in Congress that prevents the United States credit-card firms and banks from being able to process payments to offshore gaming businesses.