On a first guess, I would say the primary difference between this situation and ours is that the machines in the casinos only communicate data about what’s going on in individual casinos. The argument would be that online gambling facilitates actual bets and financial transactions over these “wires”.
I’m not a lawyer so don’t quote me…
It seems there would be a very small chance to make a case that our computers only communicated data… but several courts have already ruled that — when it comes to online gambling — the bets legally occur in two places at once: The location of the server and the location of the bettor.
It’s an interesting line of thinking, though… and worth some exploring…