UIGEA December 3rd Hearing Has Online Gamblers Nervous

Written by: harry on 25th November 2009

It was just announced by the House Committee on Financial Services that two pieces of legislation related to the UIGEA will be discussed on Thursday, December 3^rd.

The first piece is H.R. 2266 and will discuss Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act and the second piece H.R. 2267 will discuss the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act.

The meeting will be held at 10am in the Rayburn House Office Building and interested parties can watch a live webcast of the hearing online at the official website.

Two days prior to this hearing, Tuesday December 1^st, US financial institutions will have to comply with the regulations of the UIGEA. That means banks will have to carry out a more thorough due diligence during account opening to deny commercial entities that may be acting as internet gaming sites access to the payment system.

They also need put in place strict policies and procedures to prevent all debit and credit card payments to online gaming sites. That has online gamblers very nervous since that is the main deposit option used nowadays.

Even though the hearing on December 3rd seems to be just informative, the H.R 2266 delays the regulation of the UIGEA by one year to December 1^st 2010. That would be great news for online players.

The second bill, H.R 2267 establishes a comprehensive framework for companies to solicit U.S. customers. This is the latest attempt to legalize and regulate the online gaming industry in the US and would make a nice Christmas gift for all gaming companies looking to get into the US market.

A bill introduced back in May, 2009 H.R. 2268 will tax online gaming operators 2% of deposits.

It remains to be seen how this story will unfold as the power shifts to the hands of the Financial Services Committee made up from 41 Democrats and the 29 Republicans.

Topics: Internet Gambling Ban, online casino, UIGEA