Lifeline Of The USA Internet Gambling Law
In 1996 we saw a surge of online casinosthat swept thru the entire world. The United States saw a massive increase in both internet casinos and players. This surge of internet players worried the land-based casino owners and they lobbied to have it stopped or at least slowed down. They recognized if this pace continued they would see even more of a reduction in profits. So they lobbied Congress hard and in 2006 The USA passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (or UIGEA).
The UIGEA act prohibited all the banks and payment processors from processing any type of transactions related to online gambling. This created a problem for players in loading and withdrawing money from their internet accounts. While the companies continued to operate they had to use payment processors that could bypass such restrictions. Despite all these laws related to online gambling, some online casinos continued to take players in the United States. On the other hand, many of the bigger online brands left the US market, the alternatives for players became incredibly limited. Many said it was very difficult to find a good online casino. Alot of ratings sites started to show up that directed players to the sites they so desperately looked for. Some of the sites were better than others, nevertheless they served the need which was created. Shortly after the industry started to stabilize and gamblers were playing online again, Black Friday hit the online gambling world.
Many casinos had found a way around the deposit and withdrawal problems and the online gambling world was growing yet again. Many started to feel invincible to this new law. The federal government was not really enforcing it and it appeared like they had no intentions starting. That was certainly a false feeling of security for both the players and internet casinos. April 15, 2011, will go down in history as the day the online gambling community was punished and punished hard. It was the start of a new era. The US Department of Justice charged the owners of the three largest poker sites Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker with bank fraud, illegal gambling offenses, and laundering billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds. The DOJ seized their domain names as well as their funds. Suddenly many US gamblers were not just left with nowhere to play and no way to recuperate their funds.
Black Friday forced more gambling brands to leave the USA Market. Everybody was once more scrambling to find new places to gamble, worried when they would ever get their money back, and wondering if anybody was going to stay in the United States market. A major blow was struck to online gambling and many wondered if it would survive. Again the review sites played a significant role in finding places for players to play. Now the market was very limited and it was a struggle to find online sites. Once again the market slowly started to stabilize and things settled down a bit. The market was damaged but survived.
The other major event was Gray Monday. Grey Monday saw more domains and gambling operations seized. There was clearly two main differences with these seizures. This time both small and big sites were seized. Many different sectors in the industry were seized including online poker, casinos, sports books as well as bingo. Basically no one was safe now. Now the size of the company did not matter anymore. Nor did the industry you’re in. This round of seizures was experienced by everyone throughout the gambling industry. The full effects of this seizure have not been felt yet but there’s now even less US Casino Sites available. Will the industry survive? It remains to be seen but it’s been hit hard.
Rich Vial is webmaster for Cirrus Casino & US Casino Sites.
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