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UIGEA
Under
a
Microscope
November
6,
2007
With
the
passing
of
the
Unlawful
Internet
Gambling
and
Enforcement
Act
of
2006,
or
UIGEA,
it
became
illegal
for
financial
institutions
to
process
payments
as
they
pertain
to
the
transactions
involved
in
online
gambling.
The
onus
falls
on
the
banks
and
financial
companies
to
ensure
that
the
processing
of
those
payments
does
not
get
through,
and
that
they
uphold
the
law
to
its
fullest
extent.
However,
according
to
the
“Proposed
Internet
Gambling
Regulation
Would
Require
New
Policies
and
Procedures
for
the
U.S.
Payment
Systems”
advisory
that
was
just
released
by
Alston
&
Bird,
a
national
law
firm,
it
would
be
very
simple
for
people
to
circumvent
the
checks
and
balances
and
continue
to
participate
in
online
gambling.
They
say
that
the
banks,
etc.
would
face
huge
burdens
in
attempting
to
regulate
the
online
gambling
transactions.
They
say
that
residents
can
simply
go
around
the
laws
and
use
a
foreign
bank
account
where
online
gambling
is
legal.
They
say
that
it
would
be
extremely
difficult
for
the
banks
and
financial
institutions
to
comply
with
the
ruling,
and
that
they
are
clearly
setting
them
up
for
failure.
They
say
that
the
banks
would
then
have
to
“interpret
ambiguous
State
and
Federal
gambling
laws,
which
do
not
clearly
differentiate
between
legal
and
illegal
Internet
gambling
activities
or
transactions,
and
then
implement
unreasonable
and
costly
solutions
to
achieve
compliance.”
The
advisory
goes
on
to
say
that
the
worst
part
is
that
even
after
the
banks
have
worked
so
hard
to
try
and
put
in
the
regulations
and
restrictions
that
the
government
has
asked
for,
they
will
still
fail
in
their
mission
–
which
is
to
stop
online
gambling.
Even
the
processing
of
actual
checks
would
be
impossible
with
them
unable
to
check
each
individual
check
to
see
if
it
was
written
out
to
some
online
gambling
company.
They
state
that
instead
of
trying
to
put
the
burden
for
stopping
online
gambling
on
the
financial
industry,
simply
regulate
and
tax
online
gambling
which
would
allow
residents
to
gamble
safely.
It
would
also
bring
in a
healthy
string
of
revenue
for
the
country
as
well.
The
entire
report
is
available
for
viewing
at
www.alston.com.
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