Home / Poker News November 2009 / A small victory for online poker
A small victory for online poker
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-11-27 06:15
The UIGEA compliance date has been pushed back 6 months. That’s correct sir…at a time when bad news about the
online poker industry’s ongoing battle with the seemingly untouchable UIGEA abound and when ominous news headlines appear on a daily basis, a glimmer of hope arises over the horizon. The industry may be down, but it’s apparently not out for the count yet.
US Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner has granted the besieged industry a little bit of breathing room, by offering a compromise 6 months delay to the petition submitted by the Poker Players’ Alliance which requested a full year.
IMEGA chairman Joe Brennan confirmed that the delay had indeed been set.
The move comes just before the Dec 1 deadline, when all the provisions of the UIGEA were supposed to be enforced. The online poker industry (especially
online poker giants Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars) are not the only ones breathing a sigh of relief. For those of you who may still not be familiar with what the UIGEA set out to achieve: it does not make online poker illegal. Rather, it forbids financial institutions to process any sort of online poker and online gambling related funds transfers, from players to online poker/gambling sites and vice-versa.
These financial institutions, which carry the biggest share of the financial burden posed by the UIGEA, were probably just as interested in tabling the compliance date as the online poker industry was.
According to Brennan, Geithner’s move was a totally unexpected one as it wasn’t exactly common practice for various branches of government to get so directly involved in Congressional acts. Brennan attributed the success to Barney Frank’s influence and interest taken in the matter.
The fact that Frank had been aware the compliance would be postponed is attested by his scheduling of a hearing on his two poker related bills for Dec 3rd.
The delay, as insignificant as it may seem, hopefully paves the way for other such small victories on the road to legalization. It also sends out a strong message that Frank is indeed bent on using the full extent of his influence to have this industry legalized and regulated.
The PPA’s petition to delay the implementation of the UIGEA’s provisions was supported by the National Thoroughbred Racing association and the American Greyhound Track Operators Association too.
