PPA Looking to Swing Vote for UIGEA Laws
It has almost been month since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) went into effect and things seem to be going well. The law was supposed to halt gambling online by US residents by stopping the source of funding for websites, but it has not done much to slow down Internet poker gambling.
John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, recently stated, “I think we’ve seen very little impact on the ability of Americans to play poker on the Internet. For many Internet poker sites and players, the ill effects of the UIGEA were felt several months ago if not several years. Most sites migrated to other responsible payment systems and the players migrated to that as well.”
The Poker Players Alliance asked for its members to contact the organization if they were coming across problems withdrawing winnings because of the UIGEA, which was to only have an impact on financial transactions of Internet poker websites. Papas stated that the organization has not received a lot of complaints on the matter.
Papas said, “We’re kind of the front line. If our members have problems they e-mail us, and we haven’t really seen an uptick of complaints from our membership.”
The UIGEA has stopped any chance of credit card deposits, but Internet poker websites have changed to work around the laws. It is interesting that the websites that are having problems are ones like Internet horse ranking sites that were exempt from the UIGEA laws, but are still being overlooked by credit card companies and they did not have any other options prepared to take money from customers.
There have been meetings with representatives of the House of Financial services committee and the PPA to resolve the issue. The committee is expected to look over the Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, authored by Barney Frank, in July to see why the UIGEA is not properly working.
Even though no date has been set for the markup of the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, which Frank stated should have been done in may, a hearing will take place in July or August.
To make preparations for the vote the PPA is having a promotion to raise money. They are asking for donations, which began July 1st, and can be made at the website of the PPA. Pappas stated, “This is a historic vote and the PPA needs everything in place to do what is necessary. We’re hoping the poker community steps up and donates to the PPA to get us the funds we need to carry out a successful month of July.”
