US De-Regulates Internet Gambling, Then Proposes Regulation

When the United States passed the UIGE Act in 2006 they unofficially deregulated the sufficiently self-regulated Internet gambling business. With Barney Frank's new bill to legalize online gaming, he is introducing to the United States congress all the regulations that were already in place and working before the US prohibited banks from allowing 'illegal' gaming transactions.

In an interview with Barney Frank a question was posed of how his new bill addresses the problems of underage gambling. He answered by explaining that when signing up at an online casino the user must submit a range of information including the person's name, d.o.b., address, along with more details such as the person's driver license number and/or a utility bill, in order to verify the person is who the person says he/she is. Groups from all sectors will clamor over this great piece of the bill. However, it is important to point out that all of these pieces of data were already required at most online casinos before the US passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. After the law passed, those legitimate online casinos, who already had those regulations in place, left the US market, thus leaving the market open to companies who have no regulations, who prey on the underage.

In that same interview Frank was asked how his new regulations would protect the problem gamblers from proliferating. He explained that mechanisms at online casinos would be implemented to protect the problem gamblers. How? Online casinos could provide limits for how much a person is able to deposit in a certain time period. Online casinos could track each deposit and not allow deposits after reaching a certain amount. They could track irregularities in the deposits, if someone seems to be depositing incessantly a flag could go up and the account could be suspended pending further investigation. Let it be known that these regulations were already in place before the United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. After the law passed, the legitimate online casinos were forced to leave the US market, which left the market open to companies who have no regulations, who prey on the problem gambler.

Well, let's call a spade a spade. This newly proposed law by Barney Frank really only exists to allow the United States to get their hand in the money pile of the Internet gambling industry. The bill is slightly disguised as one meant to protect problem gamblers and the underage, and the rest of the world from money launderers and fraud criminals. But the reality is that this industry was wonderfully regulated by the people of this industry before the United States intervened.

The United States deregulated Internet gambling last year when they passed the UIGE Act, now they are proposing to regulate the industry with the same regulations that were in place before they intervened in the first place.

April 27, 2007
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!