UIGEA triumph 1 day before Obama's inauguration

The outgoing Republicans have been scrambling desperately to push through the final rule changes in the unpopular UIGEA bill before the administration change on 20 January, 2009. The bill targets online bingo, casino, slots and poker companies that offer their services to US citizens, by forcing payment processors to block payments.

In spite of Barney Frank's recent appeal to the outgoing administration to postpone rulemaking, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve board have pushed the newly updated UIGEA through, and it will become effective on 19 January - just 24 hours before Barack Obama is inaugurated as the new President of the United States.

This last stand of the Republicans, making use of what is known as a 'midnight drop' (pushing through unpopular bills before they leave power) reeks of desperation, and will only serve to tie up the hands of the new Obama administration.

The final UIGEA rules have been published in a 121 document, with some curious highlights: poker has now been classified as a game of chance, while horse racing and fantasy football are skill games. The 'illegal gambling' or 'unlawful internet gambling' terms remain undefined.

The burden of proof now falls on the payment providers to practice due diligence on their customers in order to establish a connection with 'unlawful internet gambling'.

Although the rule becomes effective in January, a time frame of a year has been allowed in order for banks to set up necessaru procedures. This also means that the new administration has a year to implement safe and sensible regulatory guidelines for online bingo, casino and poker fans in the USA.

Written by Charlene Grey for Bingostreet.com - the number one resource in the UK for online bingo and the best bingo promotions.