Online Gambling is Still There       
 
July 14, 2009

Rep. Barney Frank spoke at the World Series of Poker the other night to try and encourage the online gambling community that legalization was not that far away. Frank pointed out that yes, his bill to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, or UIGEA, has been postponed for now, but that it did not mean that it was done.
 
Frank has long been online gambling’s biggest proponent, and he has been dedicated to bringing forth legislation that would make the hobby legal in the United States. However, the economy has derailed that legislation and the first talks on legalizing online gambling have been pushed back to September at the earliest.
 
Phil Hellmuth was at that poker event and he said that the US government is underestimating the power of the people. He said that online gambling was going to continue to grow across the US and the world whether it is legal or not. Many experts agree, especially since online gambling increased in the number of people participating by a substantial amount after the UIGEA was passed.
 
Some say that the US thought that by passing the UIGEA that their online gambling troubles would be over and that the players would just go away. Many experts believe that the US did not realize the push back that it would get from the online gambling community. Then when other countries and the World Trade Organization got involved it became almost a matter of stubbornness instead of something that was probably originally meant to protect people.

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