Posts Tagged ‘UIGEA’

Frank Signs Two More Sponsors

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that at some point in time, Representative Barney Frank will indeed be successful in making sure that the online casinos of America are properly regulated and licensed. Now, the real question at hand is simply when he will be able to pull this off. Now is a tricky time for Congress to take any firm action in this regard. They are too busy arguing over whether or not they should issue some sort of commemorative official statement after the death of Michael Jackson. Granted, they are also engaged in trying to figure out how to manage the wars, the economy and global warming among other things. President Obama has a lot on his plate beyond just addressing the issues related to online casino gambling laws in the United States.

But Frank has moved forward another couple of steps in the process recently as he succeeded in adding two more sponsors to his bill, HR 2267. The bill he has proposed is meant to license and regulate online casinos in America. Now the two politicians who have signed on to give their support include Representative Edolphus Towns from New York and Representative Paul Hodes of New Hampshire. Two simple additions may not seem like much, but every little bit of support counts as Frank tries to advance his cause for casino operators and players across the nation.

Right now the bill is in a bit of a holding pattern in the House Financial Services Committee and it will most likely remain there until sometime in the month of September. But there are a great number of people who are eager and hopeful as they await a positive outcome to this long-awaited decision. This could be the next big step in bringing in a whole new industry for casino gaming in America, especially if they succeed in repealing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. That is the real key toward moving on from this jumble of ridiculousness.

Exec Summit Ponders US Casino Future

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

A lot of interesting ideas were explored in regard to the future of online casinos at the Gaming Executive Summit held in Madrid this past week. Everyone was eager to discuss what will happen with the pending online casino regulation in the United States. Everyone is curious to see how the whole debacle players out. Will Representative Barney Frank succeed in getting the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act repealed once and for all?

Will he be able to get all online casinos properly licensed within America? These are all at the forefront of everyone’s mind heading towards the fall season of gaming. One executive from 888 indicated that the he would wager money on the fact that the United States will maintain some level of the protectionist agenda they have in place right now and that they will end up restricting the internet casino licensed to only companies that have their base in the United States.

Others, however, are more hopefully that casinos within America will be exposed to a more liberal and logical set of guidelines and that there will be a great and substantial departure from the impossible and horrific UIGEA. Of course, all of this was just mere speculation, but the issues are looking to be resolved sometime early this fall so everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting and wondering what the final outcome will be. The U.S. has received quite a lot of criticism from individual countries and also from the European Commission in regard to their horrible policies that allegedly go against the trade agreements that have been set in place.

EU Seeks Repeal Of UIGEA

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Since the European Union has come out with its stance on what should happen for the future of online casinos within the United States, it seems that Representative Barney Frank is jumping to call attention to the increasingly international movement to get the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act repealed once and for all. There are many forces at work in this battle. The anti-casino gambling activists are extremely vocal and well-connected politically, but the support for the effort to get online casino sites regulated, legalized and taxed within the United States is growing momentum on a daily basis.

Of course, many people were given a great deal of hope when President Obama came into office since everyone is under the impression that his stance toward online casinos will be much more positive and transparent than the dodgy and constitution-bending style that the Bush Administration addressed this issue with. The European Union has stated that they are against the current policies that America has in place because they discriminate against casino sites that are owned by businesses outside of the United States.

This essentially serves to violate the global trade compacts that everyone relies on to keep the international business exchange fair and upright. The Bush Administration stepped all over the global trade rules with the UIGEA and the EU is calling on Obama to make it right. Of course, he has a lot of important issues on his plate right now so it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the current administration to address the casino gambling situation in America.

Court Date Set For IMEGA Case

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

It seems that the fate is closer to being sealed as far as the iMEGA legal battle against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The court date has officially been set with the United States Third Court of Appeals for the 7th of July. It will take place in Philadelphia.

The case will see Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association and their legion of attorneys going head to head with lawyers who will be representing the United States Department of Justice. Many people in the industry of online casinos were incredibly shocked with the outcome of the battle between the United States Department of Justice and PartyGaming so it will be very interesting to see how this ends up turning out.

The United States Department of Justice will be working hard to defend the merits of the UIGEA and the laws currently in place to protect American society against the evils of online casinos. The online casino gambling ban has been under fire from a wide variety of different activist groups and individuals as well as powerful bodies like the European Union. Everyone is pushing for the repeal of the UIGEA and some brand new comprehensive internet casino legislation and regulation.

In this particular trial, iMEGA will be arguing that the UIGEA should be disregarded because the language within the law as written is too vague to be a decisive and determining end-all be-all law that wields such a vast level of power over casino operators in America. There have been several hiccups and outright hassles associated with the UIGEA that will serve to aid iMEGA in building their case. Nonetheless, this case will bring about an interesting point of reference for the reform movement of casinos in America.

EU Demands Casino Reform From U.S.

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

The ban of online casinos within the United States has been receiving a great deal of criticism for the ineffective and illogical policies that are in place. Many of the naysayers are politicians and gaming activists within the United States but there are other international operators and organizations that have come out to speak against the horrible policies also. One such body is the European Union. The EU has started to try to throw its weight behind the online casino reform efforts in America that have been led extensively by Representative Barney Frank.

Since the United States has a considerable amount of interest in maintaining strong relations with the European Union in terms of keeping up a consistent feeling of goodwill and also in regard to maintaining strong trade relationships, it is in America’s best interest to heed the suggestions thrown out by the EU as far as online casinos are concerned.

The EU has come out with some urgent suggestions that the United States needs to end its efforts to place some sort of lockdown prohibition on the online casino gambling market in America because keeping it going is in direct violation of international trade agreements that every country invested in the relationship between America and the EU are intensely concerned about.

The United States Justice Department and the Bush Administration have seemingly done everything they can to block internet casino gambling within the United States. For the most part those efforts have been largely terrible and ineffective. Still just their mere existence is not good for EU-American relations and that needs to be addressed.

Leach Tries For Re-Election

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

It seems that times are hard these days for politicians who have been staunch supporters in the past of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. One such politician is a former Representative out of Iowa named Jim Leach who, along with others from his Republican party, is known for coming up with that hot mess piece of legislation. Leach is known for waxing poetic about the horrible ills of online casinos, but now he is coming to terms with the fact that his opposition to online casino gaming in the United States may not serve him too well when he tries to get his spot in Washington back.

 

For enemies of online casinos within the United States, there are few citizens who rank higher than Jim Leach. He was one of the first to speak out against Internet casinos. He was also one of the first targets of the ever expanding grassroots effort working in support of the notion of a person’s freedom to choose to gamble at casinos online. Back in 2006, he lost his campaign even though he was the incumbent becasue of the impressive solidarity that was shown by fans of online poker who are against him and his work with the UIGEA.

 

Leach says that he now acknowledges that his role in supporting the UIGEA, among other things, has drastically hurt his bid for re-election. Right now he is working at Princeton University as a professor of public affairs. Nonetheless, Leach seems hell bent on clinging to his own misguided ideas and perceptions about online gambling even though, for the most part, they have all been proven to be utterly false.

Proposed Bill Could Get Lost In Shuffle

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

While there have been rumblings and grumblings about the potential threat of some factions of American politicians trying to stand in the way of the bill that Congressman Barney Frank is supposed to propose in the coming weeks, others have said that these rumors are not true. One senator has come out and said that he has no doubt that the bill to help improve the legislation for online casinos in the United States will be supported by both republicans and democrats in congress. Everyone who has been pushing for change in the online casino and gambling laws that have been in place are hoping against hope for a tru bipartisan effort. Only time will tell if the bill will end up finding the support it needs.

What there is little doubt of is that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has done a horribly ineffective job of trying to curb activities at online casinos. Some people have predicted that Frank’s upcoming bill will just get relegated ot the back burner in no time at all since the government has so many huge issues to confront right now. Between the situations in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan plus the treacherous national economy, the Congress and the president have a lot on their collective plates.

But there is still room to hope that the issues involving casinos and gambling online will be addressed sometime in the near future. After all, there are substantial economic prospects in the successful and effective regulation and taxation of online casinos. There could be a lot of untapped revenue that could help bring the country back into financial balance if some of the profits from online gambling could get funneled through the proper channels.

PartyGaming Admits To Wrongdoings

Friday, April 10th, 2009

While PartyGaming has been a name splashed all over the headlines of sites devoted to the news of online casinos, it seems like things are finally going to be turning around for the troubled company. The firm came up against an insane level of negative publicity with their founder Anurag Dikshit coming under fire and facing jail time and a sizeable fine for his illegal activity on behalf of PartyGaming. But now PartyGaming has done what it needed to do to make nice with the United States Department of Justice. The Department of Justice had been going after the company for some time, based on accusations that the company had breached certain restrictions associated with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

While many higher-up within the industry of online casinos have become millionaires and perhaps even billionaires through the success of their gambling sites, others have experienced extreme setbacks that have led to near financial ruin. Now PartyGaming has admitted top wrongdoing to avoid any actual prosecution. Everyone close to this casino case has indicated that this was a very smart move since it will be remembered if it ever gets to the point when online casino gambling will be legalized in the United States. The Department of Justice will remember that in the end, PartyGaming was cooperative.

With Barack Obama finally in a position of power, there are even greater chances that this could actually come to pass. Congressman Barney Frank has also been working hard to get bills introduced that will serve to effectively regulate the online gambling industry so that casinos can do their business without the threat of legal repercussions.

UIGEA Hits Hard On U.S. Casino Market

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

With the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, banks and other financial institutions have been prohibited from letting their clients make deposits and withdrawals on casino sites online. As a result, many players who reside within the United States have had a tremendously difficult time being able to place cash into their gambling accounts. While there are a handle of alternative depositing options that players have had to employ such as wire transfers and ecash, it is quite a challenge to put forth so much energy into finding loopholes around this ban.

 

The UIGEA, established back in 2006, effectively made it against the law for players to gamble online. But this proved to challenging to enforce so the government made the move to target banking companies and assorted financial institutions instead. So they have cut out the middle-man between casino players and the online casinos. This had a dramatic and highly negative impact on many Internet casinos and a good number of them went bankrupt, especially those that depended greatly on a largely American base of customers.

 

For some casinos, they depended on as much as 75% of their profits and overall revenue from their players who live within the United States. One of the most popular and successful online payment options that gamblers loved to use, NETeller, was fined $136 million in a settlement for allowing their customers to make deposits on online gambling sites. Since then, NETeller has steered clear of conducting any business in the U.S.

Frank Pushes To Repeal UIGEA

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

There is a big undercurrent of drama and disease in the murmurs between the United States and the European Union members. This has become quite out in the open just recently when the EU decided to extend the time limit they had given to the United States in order to work on and come up with proper solutions for the problems that have been occurring all over the place in the industry of online casinos thanks mostly to the presence of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Some politicians such as Representative Barney Frank are very eager to get the casino and gambling situation resolved as soon as possible and hopefully whatever the end result shows up as, it will favor the online casinos and the entire industry and also help to booster the continuously sagging national and international economy.

Word on the street is that there should be a bill introduced that specifically addresses this issue sometime within the next month. And the main purpose of this bill will be to undo the substantial damage that the UIGEA has caused, essentially repealing the act altogether. The idea of them actually being successful in pulling this endeavor off is quite heartening to many people within the online casino industry. Under the UIGEA, many casinos have suffered a great deal in addition to players from the United States who have been rejected simply for being American by a large number of online gambling sites.

Of course, Frank has tried this tactic before only to be shut down by certain evil members of Congress who see online gambling as a horribly illegal and vile sin.

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