Ashamed to be an American

The above words are ones that I never thought I would ever type but yesterday was one of the rare times I can honestly say that I was ashamed to be an American.
I had lots of emotions: anger, disappointment, bewilderment, and even brief moments of positiveness and hope. Then I realized the most prevailing emotional wind of the day was coming from the shame I felt of being American.
As most of you know I spent a large chunk of my professional career in the online gambling industry, first working for the leading trade-show and research firm in the entire industry and then transitioning to a structure where I had my own (1 person) company where I was contracted to act as PR/events/marketing team for BetOnSports plc.
I won't bore you with rehashing the details of the cash, you can find more information here and here, but instead to rehash what made me come to feel such shame of my country and its justice system.
For the most part the courts agreed that the former CEO of BetOnSports was a good man and a solid business man who meant no harm or ill-will towards customers. He wasn't driven by greed or fraud like others in the industry and certainly the executives of the company that were at BetOnSports before him (namely its founder),
The court did disagree that the company operated in a gray area, the judge actually saying that it "clearly was a black and white issue."
More than 24 hours after the case I am still stunned with this opinion and continue to feel pain and anguish for my former boss and someone who now I am proud to call a dear and great friend. I know he will "be fine" as he is a strong person who has already been through so much, I know he only looks forward and doesn't look back, but I have to weigh in on this issue myself for the sake of my own sanity.
I can't help but keep coming back to the fundamental issue of this case (the gray area vs. black and whiteness of the online gambling industry in the eyes of the Department of Justice). If there was or is, no "gray" area then why did it take congress nearly 10 years to finally pass a bill that brought clarity to the issue? And even at that the "clarity" was only specific to the payment transaction side of the business. You can even argue the bill was only allowed to be passed due in large part to the media buzz from the BetOnSports case that was going around when the bill go through Congress.
And then finally, if this is such a "black and white" issue why do hundreds of sites, with tens-of-thousands of customers and millions of dollars of revenue continue to operate today and even advertise throughout mainstream media?
This industry will continue to flourish outside the U.S. and other countries where it is licensed and regulated will seek benefits from it. The U.S. will continue to try to prohibit the industry while American citizens who wish to spend their leisure time and money online playing poker, casino games or even sports betting, will continue to find plenty of options online to do so.
And I will continue to feel ashamed of our country and its "strategy" in dealing with the online gambling industry.