When George W. Bush put his pen to paper on September 30, 2006 there was little doubt that it brought a major impact to Internet gambling. This was the act of signing into law what is known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. (UIGEA).The Uigea regulations were about to cause a stir that perhaps no one anticipated.
As far as impact goes, was it really that devastating to the online gaming world? In many ways yes. Has it brought about the results that the United States Parliament expected? The answer to that is no.
Cut off The Cash Flow
The havoc that this new law on gambling inflicted was in respect to the financing of gaming activities. It must be understood that online gaming is not illegal in respect to USA law. Therefore, what it comes down to is the USA Government’s concept that if you dry up the flow of money going to gaming sites, then you are going to dry up the flow of gambling. In many respects they underestimated the will of avid online gamblers.
The new internet gambling regulation enforces the restriction of being able to transfer money for the purposes of "unlawful Internet Gambling." Now that really doesn’t make a lot of sense does it? Especially when technically there is no law that says internet gambling is illegal.
UIGEA regulations were one of those laws that crept in through the "back door" without debate because it was attached to the SAFE Port Act. The whole concept of UIGEA is to enforce regulations between Banking Institutions and USA citizens. Like mostly laws though, it is vague and difficult to interpret which is part of the reason it has caused such a stir.
How UIGEA Impacted US Gamblers
As far as impact to the online gambling world, it drastically affected the USA players. Means of funding their gambling accounts became virtually non-existent and therefore many of the gaming sites imposed restrictions on US players. The outcome was that many USA players no longer had any significant online gaming venues. In respect to the online casino owners themselves, they lost a huge amount of money with the decrease in their USA membership.
Another repercussion of this internet gambling regulation is the tension it created with the WTO, which declared that it violated a trade treaty with Antigua and the Bahamas. This lead to a $3.4 billion trade sanction imposed against the USA by Antigua, which they won but was settled out of court.
Where the UIGEA stands now
The compliance deadline for UIGEA is drawing close as it’s slated for December 1, 2009. The one hope left to win a delay lies with a petition held in the hands of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. Unfortunately, it seems Representative Barney Frank, an opponent of the UIGEA, has no hope of getting his petition addressed within the next few weeks with so many other pressing issues facing the country. The hope is to get the UIGEA delayed a year.
So the question posed is whether Geithner is going to have the time or ability to address the petition prior to the deadline date for UIGEA? If so, is the petition going to get the point across about the negative impact that UIGEA regulation could have on a flailing economy? The Poker Player Association filed the 19 congressman backed petition with Representative Barney Frank as the lead. The gist of the petition is the concerns that the Banking Institutions have regarding the deadline date.