Home / Poker News July 2008 / UIGEA under scrutiny by Republicans?
UIGEA under scrutiny by Republicans?
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2008-07-31 09:21
The ambiguity of the UIGEA which makes its implementation quite impossible in its present form, has finally been recognized by the Republicans as well. Four Republican Congressmen, Jim Gerlach (PA), Judy Biggert (IL), Christopher Shays (CT) and Kein McCarthy forwarded an open letter to the secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Governors’ Board of the Federal Reserve, in which they requested that the UIGEA be made more specific in its definition of what constitutes illegal online gambling. As you probably know, in its present form, the above named Act fails to define illegal gambling thus putting those responsible for its enforcement in an extremely delicate situation.
Banking institutions (which will probably have to spend huge amounts of funds setting up the infrastructure anyway) will be held responsible for completing transactions towards entities which are not clearly identified as perpetrators of an illegal activity.
While the authors of the open letter reaffirmed their support for the UIGEA, besides the assailment of the “vague language” used in the bill, they made reference to two other issues concerning its implementation.
First of all, they requested an independent analysis on the true costs of the implementation of the regulations set forth in the UIGEA for banking institutions and small businesses concerned. It is suspected that the assessment put forth by those who pushed the bill through in the first place has little to no connection to the real costs involved as it grossly underestimated them. This request is meant to address the plight of those institutions which suddenly found themselves between a rock and a hard place, having been transformed into law-enforcement agencies, with extremely ambiguous rules to enforce.
The second request was that an Administrative Law Judge take over the rulemaking process involved.
The current initiative carries special significance: it marks the first ever Republican move towards changing the wording of the UIGEA, and towards determining the true costs of implementation. All previous such efforts had Democratic backing and were therefore staunchly opposed by Republicans.
Whether or not the UIGEA will fall remains to be seen, although it is looking increasingly unlikely that it will be enforced in its current form.
