I know the laws are different in the US to Britain but that is almost equivalent of saying that a Government employee in Britain could not bet in a betting office.
Gambling, with the exception of state funded lotteries, is prohibited in the U.S. It’s one of the things cartels like the NFL have pressured the government into implementing.
Now, most people gambled anyway, but then back in ‘06 they passed a law basically giving the government full unfettered access to credit card company records and banning them from handling transactions involving overseas gambling (most of the betting sites are handled either from Costa Rica or the Caribbean).
That’s the new way of controlling policy: instead of passing a law you can’t enforce, pass a law against the credit card companies preventing them from processing transactions regarding the item you want to ban. It’s a lot easier that way.
Scary stuff, isn’t it?