UIGEA Compliance Deadline Set for Tuesday
Barring a last-minute breakthrough by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), U.S. Treasury, or Federal Reserve, the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will go into effect on Tuesday, June 1st.
In November, the Treasury and Federal Reserve granted a six-month delay in mandatory industry compliance with the UIGEA’s rules until June 1st. In the interim, it was presumed that the muddled 2006 law, which sailed through the Senate after being attached to an unrelated port security measure, would be clarified. However, with groundbreaking health care reform and a sagging U.S. economy taking center stage, Congress has been concerned with everything but internet poker.
Enter Tuesday’s compliance deadline. On May 25th, PokerTime officials distributed an e-mail to affiliates that succinctly read, “Due to legislative changes in the USA as of June 1st, 2010, PokerTime will no longer be accepting bets from U.S.-based players. All players’ balances in excess of $20 will be cashed out on the 31st of May 2010. We thank you for your support and patronage and look forward to continued success with you in other marketing territories.”
The UIGEA prohibits deposits from U.S. financial institutions to “unlawful internet gambling” sites. Despite being the U, I, and G in UIGEA, the three-word phrase was never defined by Congress. Instead, the law defers to a web of federal, state, local, and tribal laws to determine what is permitted. All attempts to clarify the law, including a petition from the PPA to exclude peer-to-peer games, have not yet come to fruition.
On the TwoPlusTwo forums, an 11-page thread that popped up in mid-April and was still going strong inquired as to what the lay of the land will be in the internet gambling industry come June 1st. One poster gave his two cents on what may occur: “My prediction is that, absent any legislative or legal relief, it will get incrementally more difficult for U.S. players to make deposits and withdrawals over time.” The UIGEA only affects deposits; however, online poker affiliates have noted that wire transfer minimums from major sites have increased in recent months.
In the background of the June 1st deadline is testimony from the recent House Ways and Means Committee hearing on internet gambling. Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), one of the architects of the UIGEA, admitted that it was up to the 50 individual states to decide whether internet gambling should be permitted. A decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals last September declared that the UIGEA, in and of itself, had not made any new activity illegal. Accordingly, states like California have been exploring legalized online poker as a way to curtail major budget shortfalls.
In a video posted on the PPA’s website, Executive Director John Pappas forecasted, “We don’t expect [June 1st] to be a doomsday scenario for online poker. To be clear, it is not going to be unlawful for you, the poker player, to play internet poker… Nothing should stop you from getting money off of an online poker site.”
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest UIGEA headlines.
Related Poker News:
- Six Kentucky Congressmen Support Pushing UIGEA Deadline Back One Year
- The PokerNews Mailbag: Best in the World, UIGEA Delay, Home Games
- Poker Player Alliance Files Petition to Delay UIGEA Compliance
- UIGEA Goes into Full Effect
- No Penalties for Not Complying with Anti Poker Law
- Internet Gambling Expert Reacts to UIGEA Regulations Delay
- Online Poker Industry Nearing December 1st UIGEA Compliance Deadline
- Internet Gambling Industry Braces for UIGEA Compliance Deadline
- UIGEA Delayed
- May 6th – Daily Deal
- Poker Players Alliance Still Confident in Geithner
- Poker Players Alliance Comments on UIGEA Compliance Deadline
Useful poker terms:
- LIVE BLIND - The last and largest blind bet may or may not be LIVE. If LIVE, the blind bettor has the option of "raising" his own blind in the event the bet is called around to him. This is normal, and is sometimes referred to as "blinds are live".
- STUD - Any of several poker games in which some of each players' cards are exposed.
- FIRE - To make the first bet in a betting round. Used to emphasize that the player bet when a check was possible, showing strength.
- ROLLED UP - In seven-card stud, being dealt three of a kind in the first three cards.
- CASE - The fourth card of a particular rank, as in "he folded the case 9" when describing where all the 9s were in a hand. Comes from the game of Faro where an employee of the house, called the "case keeper". kept track of the number of each rank of card remaining.
- TRIP - Three of a specific kind, as in "Trip sixes".
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