UIGEA Put Off For More Pressing Issues Again
The development of online gambling in the United States has been quite an exciting topic to monitor. The beginning was the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. This act deemed financial institutions’ transactions regarding online slots and online gambling as illegal. After that was the introduction of Barney Frank’s bill to legalize online slots and online gambling. Earlier this year the bill was introduced and changed the future of online slots, online poker and online gambling as a whole.
The bill began to receive bipartisan support and was quickly moving to being reviewed by the US legislature. Unfortunately a roadblock came about: the recession. The recession began about a year ago and wreaked havoc on the economy of the US. Almost every state is in turmoil and faces huge deficits in the budget. Without many option on how to handle these deficits, states are looking to legalize and regulate online slots and online gambling. If they can put forth the proper regulations, they can then benefit from the billions of dollars that are moving in and out of the country in offshore gambling. The money can be kept in the country and taxed. Those taxes would fund various government programs at the federal and state levels.
The problem with the recession though is that it created many more pressing issued for Congress to look at. The bill concerning legalizing gambling has been put on the back burner while other more pertinent issues are sorted out. Although many believe that the legalization and regulation of online gambling is inevitable, they do not yet know what the time line will be for its movement forward.
The outlook for online gambling in the United States has taken a roller coaster ride of sorts in 2009. It began on a bad note with the UIGEA rules coming in force and the delay in the introduction of Barney Frank’s bill to legalize online gambling. Then early in May the bill was introduced and the outlook changed. The bill began to receive bipartisan support and till recently Frank was sure of pushing the bill for a hearing as soon as possible. Then last week came the news that the hearing on the bill could be had only in September because of a more pressing economic agenda and things began to look bleak again. Now Goldman Sachs has released a report stating that the legalization and regulation of online gambling in the United States is inevitable. A business analyst at Goldman Sachs stated, “We believe it is logical to assume that the US market will eventually regulate [online slots, poker and gambling in general], given the potential implications for US tax take, if nothing else.”
