UIGEA news and analysis

In September 2006, the United States House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation that would make it illegal for financial institutions to conduct monetary transactions with online gambling sites. This legislation, termed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), was "tacked on" in the final hours (shortly before adjourning for the midterm elections) as an amendment to the unrelated and virtually unstoppable SAFE Port Act, which was intended to improve the security of American ports. The Act was signed into law by then U.S. President Bush on October 13, 2006. The specific UIGEA part of the Act can be read here.

Several large online gambling operators including 888.com, Party Gaming and Bwin immediately stopped accepting bets from U.S. customers, and saw their stock prices tumble accordingly. However, many other operators have continued to accept customers from the United States despite the legal uncertainty this law has created.

Curiously, no part of the UIGEA defines what exactly "unlawful Internet gambling" is and no part of the Act prohibits anyone from gambling online. A couple of years of hindsight has revealed the effects of this legislation to be:

• A minor inconvenience for U.S. players who would like to play poker or casino games online
• A flourishing industry of smaller, less visible, and largely unregulated operators happy to accept customers from the U.S.
• Most of the largest, most professional, and well regulated operators unwilling or unable to accept U.S. customers
• Billions of potential tax revenue lost by State and Federal U.S. governments

Below you can find an archive of all UIGEA related news articles we have posted to the site.