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We have come accross lots of misleading news stories regarding the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement in the past few days that sometime we do not know where we stand. Allyn Jaffrey Shulmah has finally put some expert and honest analysis into the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. She is a lawyer with some real credentials in studying and interpreting legal statutes.

After reading Mrs. Shulmah’s article you will certainly have a clearer view of the current situation, at lease that is what happened to us. if you wanna read the full article go here otherwise keep reading as we highlight the main points of the article.

The new bill attempts to make it more difficult to get money into a site by forbidding US financial Institutions from funding the type of online gambling that the law has previously made illegal. The new bill does not make online gaming illegal where it was not illegal before. Let me say that again. The new bill does not make online gaming illegal.


First and most simplistically, the bill is called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The operative word is enforcement. It is a bill whose goal is to enforce laws that already exist.

Section 5361(b) specifically states that nothing in this new law shall be construed as “altering, limiting, or expanding any Federal or State law… prohibiting, permitting or regulating gambling within the US.” In other words, the language of the statute confirms that this new law does not change existing gaming law

Even Senator Frist said about the bill, “Although we can’t monitor every online gambler or regulate offshore gambling, we can police the financial institutions that disregard our laws.”

Section 5363 begins by saying that “No person engaged in the business of betting or wagering may knowingly accept…” electronic transfers, credit cards, etc. where a person is engaged in “unlawful Internet gambling.” This new law applies, if and only if, the gambling is already illegal under current law. This brings us directly to the issue of what has been deemed illegal in the last 10 years since the first online casino opened its virtual doors. In a nutshell, sports betting is made illegal by the 1961 Wire Act, but poker is not.

Many deadbeat gamblers attempted to avoid online gambling debts they had incurred by alleging that the money they owed their credit card companies amounted to illegal gambling debts in violation of the Wire Act. As a matter of fact, there were so many similar suits filed by so many gamblers who did not want to pay their losses that the lower court consolidated 33 such similar charges. online poker was not within the reach of the Wire Act’s prohibition.

Even Representative Goodlatte, who authored one of the online gaming bills in the House, acknowledges the limitations of the Wire Act. “We need to modernize the Wire Act, which is 45 years old, and does not apply to all forms of gambling,” says Goodlatte, adding, “It clearly applies to sports betting.”

Since this new law does not change what is legal or illegal, the current hysteria is completely unfounded. This legislation attempts to make it more difficult to get money into a site. That’s about it.

Nothing is going to happen for 270 days. The Secretary and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System have 270 days (after the bill is signed by the president) to come up with enforcement policies and procedures. The bill sets up banks to police a social issue,” said Laura Fisher, spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association. “It’s not something we want to encourage.”