Internet Gambling Law, Here to Stay

Despite the efforts made by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (IMEGA) to get the Court of Appeals to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the court still ruled in favor of keeping the act.

What is the UIGEA?

The UIGEA, which was passed by the congress of America during the year 2006, states that there should not be any transactions made to transfer funds from a financial institution to a gambling site.  This, however, excludes horse racing, online lottery, and the like.  The Act greatly inhibited the movements of American members of online casinos, much to the dismay of both the players and the online gambling companies.

IMEGA's Arguments

It's understandable then that the act was met with lots of resistance.  Since its birth, the UIGEA was challenged by numerous institutions, the latest of which was IMEGA.  However, like its predecessors, the IMEGA also failed to change the court's mind.

The IMEGA is an association which supports the growth of Internet gambling businesses, mostly casino sites and such.  The IMEGA's view on the UIGEA was that the UIGEA was pretty vague for an act and that it invaded the individual privacy rights of many.  They also argued that the act was completely unconstitutional and that it posed as a possible hindrance to the U.S. in fulfilling its treaty obligations.  However, the Court of Appeals stated that the UIGEA can be easily understood by any reasonable person because of its consistency with several state laws.

Joe Brennan, Jr., the chairman of IMEGA, states that, although the court made it clear that Internet gambling is indeed unlawful, there are still some states that do not have laws against online gambling.  He further said that there are only about 12 states with laws against gambling online, leaving 44 other states to consider online gambling lawful.

This was a ray of hope for IMEGA because, as they said, while transactions were banned, any form of online gambling was not.  Furthermore, they hoped that someday in the near future, a minor revision to the UIGEA might be made so that intrastate transactions for online gambling sites will be made legal.  This might be a small concession, but if the court is adamant on keeping the UIGEA, then small concessions are certainly better than nothing.  So, there still might be hope for both the American online casino gamers and the online casino sites in the days to come.

Tagscasino, casino gamers, gambling law, IMEGA, online gambling, poker, UIGEA

See also

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• Lifting of the Online Gambling Ban Imminent?
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