Online Casino News - Potential Backfire for the UIGEA and Online Casinos

It looks like the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has backfired just a bit (or a whole lot if you consider the current dissent amidst the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department). Following one of the largest horse racing events all year in the U.S. - the Kentucky Derby - it appears that many U.S. bettors were not able to process their online wagers at internet bookmakers.

This is ironic, considering the aim and intent of the UIGEA. If you haven't heard already, the UIGEA was designed to block financial transactions with online casinos, sports betting sites, poker rooms and all other manners of wagering sites, except for fantasy sports betting leagues, horse racing and lotteries. Even more ironic, is the fact that the UIGEA does not clearly define what illegal online gambling is (No thanks to the carve outs for sure).

According to a report in the Boston Herald, gaming and banking industry professionals are expressing concerns with the UIGEA. An attorney for the Nevada pari-Mutuel Association said that unless the U.S. government takes responsibility of figuring out which online betting sites can process transactions with U.S. citizens, and which cannot, the UIGEA is only going to make things worth for U.S. banks and financial institutions.

Until that time, some financial service companies, are likely to deny otherwise "legal" online betting transactions. However, the fact remains that U.S. citizens continue to freely gambling at online casinos and the like. As Senatory Kyl himself recently expressed (Kyl was chiefly responsible for passing the UIGEA), the longer the government continues wrestling with regulatory enforcement discrepancies, the more the UIGEA will get buried by a growing wave to regulate online gambling in the U.S.