The Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, also known as the UIGEA, was established on September 30, 2006. This act, was passed in an effort to make the involvement of Internet gambling, and Internet gaming, unlawful under United States Federal law.
What the UIGEA does specifically, is prohibit any enterprise, business or individual involved in “unlawful Internet gambling”, from accepting monetary transfers. In other words, while the UIGEA doesn’t necessarily make Internet gambling illegal in itself, the process of transferring money to and from several sources involved, could be considered illegal. Despite the act not banning the participation of individuals in online poker, the act does increase the involvement of the U.S Department of Treasury, along with the Department of Justice, to seize any transactions and indict companies and consumers who are found to be involved with poker and gambling over the Internet.
Understandably, when the act was initially passed, there was a huge panic amongst those within the Internet poker community. While I certainly suggest being intelligent and careful regarding your online transactions, as long as you’re not evading your U.S. Taxes you should be OK.
A lot of speculation and worry often comes from your banking transactions. The U.S. Government, while they certainly monitor transactions between United States citizens and international consumers, often have difficulty keeping track of all gaming-related operations. Nevertheless, when the UIGEA gaming contract was enforced, the new law did require banks to ensure that they were in compliance with all UIGEA regulations. Often times, in order to stay in compliance, banks have overprotected themselves by blocking many ACH, check, and wire payments that could be related to Internet gambling. Even though banking institutions aren’t required to generate any unique written guidelines of their own regarding the “dos and don’ts” of compliance, they frequently keep their own interests in mind when considering whether or not to allow you to conduct your poker matters at their facility.
In a recent article, written in the New York Times, the U.S. Department of Treasury is now proposing a requirement for banks to report ALL transactions between the United States and international areas. While it’s not new information that banks have long been reporting international and domestic transfers over the sum of $10,000, the monitoring of all operations is being proposed in an effort to stop terrorist financing, tax evasion, and money laundering. If you also weren’t aware, most of the online poker sites currently running are under the operation of overseas countries.
Although the new infrastructure, if created, will certainly present more problems than solutions for Internet poker players, the light at the end of the tunnel resides in the budget for this proposed project. An estimated $33 million would be required to begin closely tracking all cash and electronic money transfers into and out of the United States. Also, doubts have stemmed about the plans effectiveness, as electronic payment and withdrawal sources often bring up a unique “blind spot” within currency surveillance.
If the new project is put in motion however, players can be confident that once third-party payment processors are placed under investigation, internet poker and gambling may disappear for quite some time.
