The Federal Reserve alongside the Department of Treasury yesterday published the final rules implementing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, trying to ensure instalment of the act before President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated next year. In fact, the act comes into force the day before his January 20th ceremony.
The publishing is essentially a last work-over, addressing concerns with and commenting on the bill. One major alteration is to grant nearly a year before those companies concerned will be held accountable for transferring to online casinos.
This change was introduced to satisfy a complaint that financial centres other than credit card companies were not properly set up to review individual transactions to detect illegal gambling.
One group with a big gripe is online poker players – it was found that poker is legally defined as a game of chance, despite the inherent skill element required to be a long-term winner. Meanwhile games such as horse-racing and fantasy football remain games of skill.
