While most people in their right minds are greatly dismayed by the recent developments in regard to the rules put in place to regulate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, some people are actually celebrating the outcome. Analysts have pointed out, however, that all the Treasury Department has succeeded in doing by moving forward with this measure is to further confuse the American people.

What exactly is and isn’t considered to be illegal gambling is still in question. The only thing accomplished through this final rule is to give financial institutions an out. With the new rules in place, banks are basically required to make their customers sign as a portion of their terms and conditions that they are not going to be engaged in an online gambling activity. And although this will do absolutely nothing in terms of putting an end to or even remotely curbing online gambling, many anti-gambling groups are rejoicing, considering this development to be a great victory.

A representative from Focus on the Family Action has called this victory a special victory for families after a decade-long battle that has finally come to completion. Well, sure, but they seem to be forgetting that it is still not illegal for people to gamble online. While many legislators believe that this is the ultimate answer in regard to helping and preserving American families but most people think that is entirely misguided.

If it were to be regulated, the online gambling industry would bring millions or perhaps even billions of dollars into the American economy at a time when it is in great need of revitalization. Think about it, people! That would certainly help American families.

Just last week, the president of the American Gaming Association predicted that legalizing online gambling will be the future for the United States. As the economy continues to go up and down and mostly down, many folks are looking at industries that hold the potential to help bolster the national economy in its fragile state, and the online gambling industry is one of the first places people are looking towards. Even land-based casinos are beginning to take a closer look at the possibilities that online casinos may hold.

As enormous land-based casino resorts are going up in unprofitable flames for being almost impossible to finance, many people are rethinking their views on online casinos. Gamblers who normally flock to the bright lights and big city glamour of places like Las Vegas are tightening their belts and in turn, revenues have dropped sharply as people can no longer afford to travel.

Many people see the regulation and ultimately the legalization of Internet gambling as the dark horse for helping to fix Congressional budgets. With the new administration coming into power in a little more than two months, new programs are going to be introduced and everyone will be looking around searching for ways to pay for them. Gambling industry insiders are confident that many people will realize that online gambling could be the perfect solution toward finding ways to generate additional revenue.

If the federal government were to make the move toward taxation and proper regulation of online casinos, there are potential billions of dollars worth of revenue to be gained from doing so.

Known as one of the leading operations on the online casino software market, Cryptologic has recently announced that they will be narrowing their focus on their internet casino business. In addition to announcing the collaborations with a handful of other successful online casino operations, this shift in their strategy could prove highly successful for the company as they seek to capture new players and harness the power of a huge industry even as the economy sinks deeper and deeper.

With their recent partnering with such operations as PartyGaming and Boss Media, Cryptologic has demonstrated that they are approaching the business in an entirely different way. By focusing on building their brand and also fostering relationships with other big players, they are seeking to expand their reach all the while narrowing in to focus their energies on the wonders of online gambling.

This new strategy is bringing in the new players as people are stopping to take a second look at this company. These collaborations are also an effort to bring down yearly operating costs while keeping room open for the company to experience substantial growth. They are looking to save somewhere between $12 to $15 million through these new partnerships.

The focus will be on producing sharp and innovative games that capture the loyalty of veteran players and attract brand new players as well. They hope to maintain an edge over their competition through their use of incorporating successful and well-known brand names from the entertainment world and bringing them into the online gambling realm.

Although he was struck incredibly surprised by the Bush administration’s last-minute attempts to push through the uiGEA regulations, Barney Frank was also incredibly disappointed. For more than two years, financial and government leaders have brought testimony on the ineffective, illogical and unenforceable issues that are evident through the law. The UIGEA attempts to block payment transactions that have any ties to the online gambling industry. What the Bush administration and Treasury officials are now doing is known as pushing a “midnight drop” of regulations.

Even though Frank has asked Henry Paulson to slow down the process and in effect save it as something for the incoming administration to deal with after careful review and discussions over the proposed rule changes. Frank, a Representative from Massachusetts, has been dedicated to trying to dismantle the damage that the UIGEA has brought to the industry. He is pushing for a bill that would halt UIGEA implementation so that the financial system within the United States can be kept on a more stable level as it goes through an increasingly challenging time with the shoddy economy.

Pushing through with the finalizing efforts on the UIGEA will bring a substantial burden on the incoming president and his administration, a burden that is really unnecessary with all of the other more pressing obligations they are going to have to confront in their first few months in office. If the current administration does have success with pushing through the new regulations, they will go into event the very last day of Bush’s last term in the White House, after going through a review by the Office of Management and Budget and a 60-day consideration period.

Another longtime ally of the Internet gambling industry is Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington State. In terms of his work on behalf of online gambling, he is best known for introducing HR 2607 and HR 6501. These bills both deal with the taxation of Internet gambling. Although other politicians such as Berkley and Porter have rejected HR 6501 that has indicated that as much as $40 billion could be raised for job skills in those declining industries, many people are in support of it. They say it demonstrates a real strong effort to outline the incredibly positive impacts that the online gambling industry could potentially have on society. McDermott had no real trouble trouncing his opponent in the race, scoring a landslide victory over Republican Steve Beren 84% to 15%.

Several politicians who have dedicated themselves to be the thorn in the side of the online gambling industry faced re-election this week also. Virginian Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, one of the key figures in driving the UIGEA into law in 2006 beat out his Deomcratic opponent Sam Rasoul in a 61% to 36% final tally.  As the Representative for the 6th Congressional District of Virginia, Goodlatte is notorious as online poker’s biggest enemy.

Another sworn enemy of the online gambling industry, Congressman Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama won his race. That isn’t too incredibly impressive since he ran unopposed. He is the leading Republican on the House Financial Services Committee. His claim to fame as a nutcase concerns the tie he made up a study by McGill University out of thin air. He claimed the study showed that a third of all college students who engage in some form of online gambling end up attempting suicide. Unfortunately for Bachus, no such study every happened at the Canadian university. Nevertheless, the American people decided that he deserved to get re-elected.

Not all of the political allies of the online gambling industry belong to the Democrats. Several prominent Republicans have been hard at work fighting the good fight as well. Take for instance, Congressman Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas. He introduced HR 6663. The main goals of this bill are to better define the relationship between the UIGEA and online sports betting, pushing mainly for the Act to focus specifically on the online sports betting sector. Representing the 32nd Congressional District of Texas, Sessions scored a convincing win over Democratic candidate Eric Robertson by 57% to 40%.

Another online gambling advocate who does not play for the Democratic team is Texan Congressman Ron Paul. He co-authored HR 5767, the original version of the Payments System Protection Act, along with Barney Frank. Although the bill was defeated in Committee, an amendment has been added and things are now looking even more optimistic that it will find its way all the way through congress.

Republican Jon Porter and Democrat Shelley Berkley, Representatives of Nevada have previously introduced legislation dedicated to the study of online gambling. Berkley worked to push through HR 2140, along with 73 co-sponsors near the end of the 2008 Congressional session. That is the most sponsors ever for any internet gambling-related bill. Fortunately, Berkley won the race 67% to 28%, but things did not have such a great outcome for Porter. He lost to Democrat Tina Titus in a very close race 47% to 42%. So overall, this race brought some positive developments for the online gambling industry and also, but with less frequency, a few negative effects as advocates of the industry lost their races.

While Barney Frank is the most well-known political advocate for the interests of the online gambling industry, there are many other “soldiers” fighting the good fight to restructure certain pieces of legislation so that the restrictions on the industry are reasonable, logical and enforceable. With most of the politicians who have worked to address issues related to the industry mainly falling under the democratic category, it is great news that in this week’s election, an overwhelming number of democrats beat out their Republican opponents throughout the country.

A Democrat from Florida, Robert Wexler, has made considerable progress in addressing how games of skill should be omitted from the UIGEA and the Wire Act. To this end, he introduced HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act that serves to exempt online bridge, chess, poker and other games of skill from both the UIGEA and the Wire Act. If you are scratching your head trying to figure out exactly what they may mean by “games of skill” it is rather simple. The basic definition of a skill game is where the main action involves one player versus another player, as opposed to one player playing against the house (or casino). As the representative of the 19th Congressional District of Florida, Wexler had tremendous success with his recent campaign, beating Republican Edward Lynch by 66% to 27%.

While this victory may only mean small steps forward towards improving the legislation that dictates the guidelines for the online gambling industry, they are very positive signs that more and more opportunities will open up to reduce the overreaching power of the UIGEA Act and other misguided pieces of legislation that fail to serve the interests of the people.

With so much at stake as the results of the election have come in, it is hard to know where to begin. Folks inside the online gambling industry, however, have not missed a beat in keeping tabs on the elected citizens who are supposed to be working for them. Let’s take a moment to examine the political efforts of a few politicians to see who stands where on the issues most important to the industry.

One of the most dedicated and best-known politicians who stands firmly in support of the online gambling industry is a democrat from Massachusetts named Barney Frank. As the 2008 congressional session was winding down, he was diligently pushing forward HR 6870, a revised version of the Payment System Protection Act through the House Financial Services Committee.
The aim of the bill is to define the parameters of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) so that the do’s and don’ts are much more clear for regular citizens to understand.

Fortunately for the online gambling industry, Frank won the election handily, beating out his Republican opponent Earl Sholley by 68% to 25%. If HR 6870 does not come to the forefront in the midst of a lame duck session during these last few months of 2008, it will have to be reintroduced come 2009, as with any pending legislation. And no one is in a better position to lead that fight than Barney Frank. Although there are several issues that will have to be addressed first in this time of severe economic woes, hopefully issues related to online gambling will be addressed in a timely manner.

Now that the election has finally come to a close, the spotlight will shift from the celebrity and glamour of the race to the White House to the democrats who will rule the roost in both the Senate and the House. The online gambling community will be watching and waiting to see whether or not these politicians will back up their promises with real action in terms of undoing all of the damage Republicans have wrought in recent years.

Representative Barney Frank has insisted that they will eventually push for Internet gambling to be legalized and regulated with legislation that makes logical sense. Another important quality the new legislation much have is that it be feasible and enforceable. The Republicans have been hard at work in charge of pushing forward with their agenda of applying ridiculous and unenforceable legislation aimed at shutting down any hopes of making online gambling legal within the United States.

Washington State Representative Jim McDermott has also sought to push forth legislation that will repeal all of the unenforceable nonsense of the UIGEA and the taxation of online casinos. Many other politicians have made a point of trying to introduce legislation that will legalize online poker and online gambling in general.

Since the democrats will be assuming complete control of both the Senate and the House in addition to the White House, players and online casino operators alike are looking on with earnest hope that things will finally go their way. Although they might have to wait until the economy settles down and the situation in Iraq gets figured out, surely some big and positive changes will be on the way.