Online Gambling is Now Legal?

April 15, 2009

There have been many reports coming up lately that say that now that President Obama is in office that online gambling is legal. However, this is not really the case. Obama and his team have not put forward any legislation as of yet that would make online gambling legal, nor have they overturned the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA. What this means is that things are pretty much the same as they were when President Bush was in office.

That being said, yes online gambling is legal, depending on where you sit. If you are in a state that allows online gambling, then yes it is legal to participate in it. However, if you live in a state such as Washington, where they have made it very clear that online gambling is not legal, than no, it is not. But all of that being said is one thing, actually being able to participate in it is another.

Online gambling itself was never made illegal by the UIGEA. However, the processing of payments by online gambling establishments and thus the banks and financial institutions is illegal. With the last passage of regulations as they relate to the UIGEA going online right before Bush left office, many were left just as confused as they were before they were passed because of the way they were written.

Banks themselves don�t even understand all of the rules and regulations that are now upon them as they pertain to online gambling. They instead are trying to police an activity that many don�t feel should be policed by them. They say that to make them responsible for blocking all online gambling payments is to give them a responsibility that they cannot handle. They have found themselves blocking what they thought were illegal online gambling payments, which ultimately turned out not to be.

So, yes it is legal, but good luck actually playing. The banks and the government are in such a mess over it, it will take legislation to finally clear it up.

 

 

Back to April 09 Archive.