December 1st and UIGEA Looming

November 23, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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This year, unless things change over the next week or so, will see the official implementation of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) in the United States. The official implementation date of the UIGEA is December 1st, from which time the act will officially be enforced.

There have been requests from a number of Congressmen to delay the implementation of the UIGEA by another year. The request was made by Barney Frank and other supporters of legalizing and regulating online gambling. At this time, however, the US Treasury has made no move, and given no form of indication, that they are planning to delay the implementation of the UIGEA.

The delay request was made in light of the fact that the Barney Frank online gambling bills have not yet been debated in Congress. The bills have been unable to advance to the relevant committee since more pressing economic issues have taken precedence, such as the health bill, and the economic crisis.

Although the UIGEA will only become official on December 1st, it has already been used numerous times by the Department of Justice against online casinos and the companies that do their payment processing for them. Bank accounts have been seized under the direction of US Attorney, Eric Holder, with the UIGEA being used as part of the legal ammunition to justify the seizures.

While this is continuing on American soil, the President of the United States is spending time overseas trying to convince others of the importance of Internet freedom. President Obama spoke much about Internet freedom during his campaign, but has not taken any steps toward preventing the increase in censorship of online casinos and other online gambling sites. President Obama, instead of dealing with the restricted Internet freedom in the Untied States is, instead, spending time trying to convince the Chinese that Internet freedom is very important.

There is still a chance that the Treasury will agree to delay the implementation of the UIGEA, but with such a short time left before the December 1st deadline, things are not looking good for those who have been hoping that the UIGEA will be delayed in order to allow enough time for the gambling bills to be debated before a final decision is made.

Even if the UIGEA is officially implemented next month, there is still a chance of it being reversed when the online gambling bills are debated, and most likely accepted by Congress.