In 2006, the U.S. created the UIGEA and had a widespread effect on the global gambling industry. Now, changes in the U.S. are afoot, and companies and gamblers throughout the world are watching carefully because of the ripple effects that are likely to occur.
Bumpy Launch in Atlantic City
Considering that the New Jersey laws related to online gambling changed in just November of 2013; it seems like an early success. After all, the casinos have made millions in profits and the state has made millions in taxes. Nevertheless, it hasn’t entirely been smooth sailing.
The banks that do business in New Jersey are still governed by federal laws, and this has created something of a gray area. A banking action in NJ could be legal there but illegal at the federal level, and the bank could be on the hook for significant fines and other punishments. For this reason, many NJ banks outright refused credit card transactions to online casinos, which put a big damper on how much money the casinos could have earned if allowed to operate unimpeded.
The Wire Act
In the U.S., the Wire Act is the series of laws that are creating this gray area, and there is a movement within Congress to amend the Wire Act with an Internet Gambling Control Act that makes the gray area a well-defined black area. A recent leaked version of the bill made it explicitly clear that it would be illegal for banks operating in the U.S. to facilitate transactions that had any association with online gambling.
Not in the Clear
Many people believed that once Atlantic City and Las Vegas were able to overcome the UIGEA that the rest of the dominoes would follow and the federal government would simply stand aside. That may not be the case, and there are some within the U.S. government that want to put up a big fight.
The Rest of the World
What this all means for the rest of the world remains to be seen. It’s certainly not cut and dry, and a lot will depend on one’s perspective. A Malta-based online casino providing services to U.S. gamblers certainly doesn’t want to lose it clients from New Jersey and Las Vegas, but changes to the Wire Act could make it so difficult to fund bets that it ends up losing the majority of its U.S. base.