UIGEA and its impact on US players and attempts to allow US players to continue playing at online gaming rooms despite the anti online gaming laws.
The Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 is the latest legislation that the Government of the United States of America has passed against gambling.
Surprisingly, the UIGEA does not change any of the current laws in place against gambling in the United States, but has in place provisions that prevent banks and financial institutions from processing transactions related to online gambling made by players from the country.
The end result of passing the UIGEA is the same as having in place a law that bans US players from playing at online casinos, only in an indirect manner. If banks are not able to process transactions by US players for online gambling sites, players would not be able to play at the online gaming rooms anyways.
In this article, we will discuss the UIGEA and its impact on US players wanting to play at online gaming rooms across the world.
US players at online casinos could feel the impact of the UIGEA within days of the legislation being passed. The first reaction of online gaming websites from across the world was to refuse entry to players from the US. As soon as it was passed, the UIGEA ensured US players lost the freedom to gamble at online gaming rooms.
For instance, in February this year, the organizers of the World Series of Poker, Harrah’s Entertainment, announced its decision not to permit advertising by dot.net websites affiliated with online poker rooms allowing US players to play at their tables.
One bit of statistic gives a clear picture of how badly the UIGEA has affected US players. Soon after the bill came into existence, over 3,000 players belonging to the online poker community just vanished.
The biggest impact that UIGEA had on US players was that affiliates started pulling out of the US market, thereby making it very difficult for them to find online gaming rooms that accepted them.
There are obviously workarounds that US players can adopt to circumvent the restrictions laid down by the UIGEA and play at online gaming rooms. However, going on to adopt these workarounds would be a troublesome task, something not too many people would be willing to risk.
On the other hand, while the UIGEA has had a definite impact on US players, there are still a number of online gaming rooms that accept players from the U.S. There is a feeling among the members of the online gambling community that the UIGEA merely managed to clean house and ensure that the smaller poker rooms shut down, making way for the bigger players to adapt according to the requirements of the UIGEA and continue giving opportunities to US players to play at their tables.
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