Regulations Proving to be a Mess

January 29, 2009

When President Bush pushed through the regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, many said that it was a mistake. They said that without giving financial institutions a clear cut definition of online gambling that US consumers would find legal transactions being blocked.

Unfortunately this is exactly what is happening. Across the country, various banking transactions are being flagged as online gambling transactions and thus are being blocked by banks. New Hampshire says that their online lottery credit card sales are now being blocked as are the in person debit card transactions for lottery sales as well.

The American Banking Association, the Department of the Treasury, credit card companies, Congress, the PPA, the American people, all said that Bush should wait on the online gambling regulations until they were clearer because mayhem could ensue if he didn�t. Unfortunately he did not listen, and how he is gone and we are in an online gambling mess.

Legitimate enterprises are finding that their transactions are being tagged as online gambling and blocked. They say that this cannot continue to occur or the companies that are getting blocked are going to start losing customers and they can�t afford that. They say that the online gambling law must be changed before there are a whole other slew of businesses out of business.

When they complain to the banking companies they say that they will review it but because they are inundated with people having the same problem there really isn�t much they can do in the short term.

 

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