UIGEA Regulations

November 13, 2008

The Bush Administration didn�t make a whole lot of friends with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA back in 2006. They snuck it in on a bill that was supposed to keep our ports safe, and instead they sold those to a foreign country and stopped those that live in the United States from participating in online gambling.

However, now that Bush has only two months left in office, it would seem that he is trying to see how badly he can leave us especially when it comes to the UIGEA. There are regulations that have been sitting on the table for two years that just now they are looking to do something with.

The Treasury Department had more than two years to come up with regulations that could be implemented to make some sense of the UIGEA. However, they have not done so all this time, and in the last two months of a botched presidency they are now looking to do so.

The online gambling industry is upset with them for the bill to start with, but the new regulations make them even harder to follow. The banking industry says that the regulations are flawed at best, and that in order to implement them they would have to change the way banks do business. They have been very clear with the government that what they are asking is just not possible.

The banks and the online gambling industry are not happy with the new laws but this does not faze the Bush Administration at all. In fact, they simply don�t care because they won�t be around to have to pick up the pieces from a bill that does not work.

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