All Talk No Action

November 28, 2008

One of the most important parts of making online gambling illegal was the simple fact that they would be protecting those that had a problem with online gambling. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, was set up to supposedly protect US residents from both outside forces as well as those that may be prone to excess spending. With the new regulations having just been put into play by the Bush Administration, one would think that there would be at least something in them about protecting citizens from online gambling addiction.

However, it seems that the new regulations don�t do that at all. They do not address the idea of problem online gambling, nor do they allocate money to help those that are addicted. The rules are set to go into effect, coincidentally, on January 19th, 2009, the day before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. These regulations supposedly cut off funds to online gambling participants, but as anyone who has read them it is obvious that where there is a will there is so obviously a way.

The Treasury Department and President Bush had stated that they were very committed to helping those that had developed a problem with online gambling, but in the end they did not follow through with what they had said they would accomplish. Instead, it makes it harder for them to gamble in just one place � driving them to find other ways of doing it instead. With no money set aside to help online gambling, the status quo will remain the same.

In fact, the online gambling industry is much more committed to helping those that have a problem with it, then those that are setting the rules and regulations for handling online gambling as a whole. They have checks and balances in place to ensure that online gambling addicts cannot participate at their online casinos, and would have continued developing those standards if the UIGEA had not been passed. It has ultimately been more destructive to online gambling addicts than online gambling itself had ever been.

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