If It Doesn't Sell Buckets, Is It Truly A Bucket Shop?

An often overlooked corner of the California Corporations Code is the Bucket Shop Law, Cal. Corp. Code § 29000 et seq.  The law quite literally criminalizes the keeping of a bucket shop:

Any person who . . . is the keeper of any bucket shop, is guilty of a felony.

Cal. Corp. Code § 29100.  However, this is a good example of why it always important to read the definitions.  The Bucket Shop Law defines a "keeper" as "any person owning, keeping, managing, operating, or promoting a bucket shop, or assisting to keep, manage, operate, or promote a bucket shop".  Cal. Corp. Code § 29007.  A "bucket shop" is defined as "any room, office, store, building, or other place where any bucketing or bucket shopping contract is made or offered to be made."  Cal. Corp. Code § 29006.  This leads to the all important definitions of "bucketing" and "bucket shopping" :

(a) Making or offering to make any contract respecting the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities, wherein both parties intend, or the keeper intends, that the contract shall be, or may be, terminated, closed, or settled according to or upon the basis of the public market quotations of prices made on any board of trade or exchange upon which the securities or commodities are dealt in, without a bona fide purchase or sale of the securities or commodities.

(b) Making or offering to make any contract respecting the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities, wherein both parties intend, or the keeper intends, that the contract shall be, or may be, deemed terminated, closed, or settled when the public market quotations of prices for the securities or commodities named in the contract reach a certain figure without a bona fide purchase or sale of the securities or commodities.

(c) Making or offering to make any contract respecting the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities, wherein both parties do not intend, or such keeper does not intend, the actual or bona fide receipt or delivery of the securities or commodities, but do intend, or the keeper does intend, a settlement of the contract based upon the differences in the public market quotations of prices at which the securities or commodities are or are asserted to be bought and sold.

(d) The sale by a keeper of any security or commodity purchased by him for the account of or upon the order of another when the proceeds of the sale are not immediately credited by the keeper to the account of the other person and when a report or statement in writing of the sale is not rendered to the other person by the keeper on the next business day following the sale.

Cal. Corp. Code § 29008.  To fully understand this definition, it is important to read the other defined terms in the Bucket Shop Law ("commodities", "contract", "person", "securities", and "trustee").

There's a hole the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza

The Bucket Shop Law predates the Internet and was written from the perspective that the illegal activity was being conducted at a physical location.  This leads to the question of whether the Internet is a "place" within the meaning of the statute.