Visa Bans Internet Gambling Transactions
Even though it is the case that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will go into effect until June of this year there are already big credit card companies that have already halted the process of Internet gambling transactions. Visa, which is the biggest credit card supplier in the United States, has recently stopped the transactions, but they are not the only major card company to do so.
The first big credit card company to stop online gambling transactions was MasterCard. However, that, obviously, did not have an effect on people that use Visa. Now there are millions of Internet gamblers in the United States that will not be able to gamble online using their Visa cards.
U.S. Representative Barney Frank, who has been on the forefront of legalizing and regulating Internet gambling, has one goal, which is to repeal the UIGEA. He has already got the support of many US lawmakers and he has also been successful in lobbying the US Treasury Department in December of last year in order to delay the publishing of the unclear rules of the UIGEA until this June.
The main focus of Barney Frank’s Financial Committee has been the slumping economy, the Massachusetts representative has not had the time in order to talk about the online gambling legislation he will propose. June is not far off so he will have to get on the ball in order to get the Bill passed. He does have a lot of support in Congress to get the UIGEA overturned and there was a study done that showed that if the UIGEA were repealed and the online gambling industry was regulated that it would reap the US government billions of dollars.
It may be the case that frank asks the Treasury Department for another delay. If that delay were to be granted frank would likely have until the end of this year in order to pass his, yet to be proposed, legislation.
In the meantime major credit card companies have decided to abide by the current laws of the UIGEA. The decision by MasterCard to halt online gambling transactions was a bit of a surprise. Now Visa and MasterCard are taking risks in their resent stance.
Internet gamblers will still find a way to play, but they will have to find another way to fund their Internet casino accounts. One of the most popular methods is e-wallet accounts. However, the credit card companies may lose millions of dollars with their recent decision.
