UIGEA Legislation Deadline Looms for US Poker Market

Many poker players are wondering what the online poker world look like next month. On June 1st it becomes illegal in the USA for banks and payment processing companies to process the financial transactions relating to online gaming and gambling. This legislation is known as UIGEA, which stands for the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.

Various attempts at having the legislation repealed has gone through the senate and Senator Barney Frank has worked tirelessly to show the US government that there is a sizeable tax revenue to be generated from accepting that the American people like engaging in this pastime and using the tax revenues as a positive income stream for the country rather than taking this restrictive measure to ban such gaming activity UIGEA represents.

Unfortunately Barney Franks attempt to have the legislation appears to have stalled and with only a couple of days before the bills implementation, only a miracle will save the US Poker market now. Other sports such as greyhound racing, horse racing and various Keno games will also be acutely affected. Attempts were made to differentiate poker as a skill game, but whilst some small judgements were made in online poker’s favour there was no large precedent case that would have a knock-on effect to the UIGEA bill. It was too little too late.

The Aftermath of UIGEA for Poker

After June 1st it will not be illegal for you to play online poker so you can still play poker tournaments online and shoot for the big prizes! The problem is getting the money in and more importantly the money out of the US poker rooms.

When you cash out, the online poker room approves the cash-out and either the bank or a third party payment processor conducts the transfer between the bank account used by the poker room and your own bank account. If you think of the payment processor as a bridge, the UIGEA bill will destroy all of the bridges! Harsh penalties will be in place for the payment processors if they defy this bill so come June 1st, en masse, they will stop processing the transactions.

When UIGEA was signed in 2006, many poker rooms immediately left the US poker market for fear of prosecution, but some remained and did very well. It may be the players this time that withdraw their money to see how things work out before putting their money back into poker. I have read some articles that suggest player to player transfers may be the only way to get money in and out of the site which could cause massive problems given the nature of such transfers, and the inevitable disputes that would occur and, of course, cheating players.

It is predicted that for US players size and frequency of cash-outs may become limited and there may be a fee introduced for these transactions. The speed and efficiency of transactions is sure to be negatively effected whilst poker rooms like Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker search for ways of complying with UIGEA and providing good customer service.

A Silver Lining?

Some of Europe’s leading poker rooms are expecting a surge in business. Cashing in and out from bwin.com is particularly smooth and this will be exceptionally difficult to achieve for even the well-meaning poker rooms in the US poker market. Online gaming is more accepted in Europe so these poker rooms look likely to achieve a surge in business. The UIGEA bill may be particularly painful for US poker players but there could be a seismic shift in the balance of power between online poker rooms favouring bwin.com as their already good levels of customer service will be ever rarer in the market. European poker could be in line for a real boost in popularity after June 1st.

Peace of mind is available at bwin.com at a time when this is very much under threat elsewhere, so maybe getting an account there is a good idea given current circumstances in online poker.

By Malcolm Clarke