UIGEA Rule is now in Effect

As of January 19th, 2009 the UIGEA became official in the United States. This means that the banks in the U.S.A. have until December 9th, 2009 to comply with the new law and alter the operations accordingly. That sounds like a great idea but the banks have informed the government that they still are not sure how and what they are protecting due to the lack of clarity in the bill itself.



There was the Payment Systems Protection Act that attempted to gain clarity for law makers to understand the UIGEA intentions clearly and define what would and would not be acceptable. However, that didn't go anywhere either.

Now the day no one wanted to see happen is here. It sure seems strange that a country that is in the midst of a credit crisis and in need of additional revenue would turn its nose up at an additional 2 billion dollar per year so easily. Because for all of the so called moral concern regarding online poker I have yet to see any reason for people in any country to be forbidden to play this game.

Call me a little idealistic or even a dreamer but I could have sworn the world had much more urgent matters to attend to. How about the cure for aids? How about solving cancer? Oh yea! Don't forget about global warming. We haven't quite figured that one out either.

Fortunately, the congress will have 60 days to go through last minute changes that were pushed through by the previous administration. Every country will be watching the United States and hopefully the lawmakers in Washington, D.C. will do the right thing.

We can only hope.