I'd guess the PATRIOT Act is involved. What's to prevent a terrorist organization from tipping large sums to their American sleepers? Our government really, really hates that sort of thing even being possible.
This is why on Draftmix, we do not allow people to do interaccount transfers. And it's been one of the things the DoJ has been using to justify their persecution of online gaming.
I imagine TipJoy would be exposing themselves to all sorts of legal woes, and that would just be one of them. The are certainly going to have to iron that out at some point.
Amazon probably does a lot more to identify the people using it than would be practical for TipJoy. It's certainly not illegal to do transfers, it's just asking for trouble to do so without knowing who both parties are. That could pose a serious problem for someone like TipJoy who is all about ease of use.
The account identification routines were a big part of what sunk egold as well. If you can't positively identify the owner of an account, then you are on the hook for illegal scams and money laundering activities. It's ugly.
This is why on Draftmix, we do not allow people to do interaccount transfers. And it's been one of the things the DoJ has been using to justify their persecution of online gaming.
I imagine TipJoy would be exposing themselves to all sorts of legal woes, and that would just be one of them. The are certainly going to have to iron that out at some point.