UIGEA FAIL: Poker and Casino Deposits Continue
Written by Roger S | Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Despite doomsday prophesies and last minute panics, it seems that nothing major has happened at popular online poker sites serving the US public, following the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act yesterday (June 1st).
The minor setbacks so far have been with the company Netspend which disabled any gambling deposits and also American express as a poker deposit option. Despite poker players not being able to deposit using Amex, there is no problem with American express casinos. There have been some reports at sites like Pokerstars for those using credit cards because Pokerstars does not decode their credit cards, which is classified as illegal although most online gambling sites do it anyway.
Players were reporting that it was business as usual at all their favorite sites and that they were making deposits with ease, using their usual banking methods. Across the internet, at sites ranging from Full Tilt Poker to Doyles Room, deposits were being made by the millions of players who enjoy this form of entertainment online.
John Pappas, the Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance said after the deadline came and went: “The Poker Players Alliance has been speculating for the last couple of months that the June 1st deadline would be more like a bump in the road rather than a catastrophic event for Internet poker.”
Pappas said that he hoped that players would continue to make their deposits and withdrawals at US facing poker sites with ease.
The bottom line by most gambling analysts is that the UIGEA has failed and no amount of tough legislation and laws will remove the fact that online poker is here to stay.
“Congress has tried to go the prohibition route, and millions of Americans continue to play online,” said Pappas.
“There are all the political and policy arguments to be made, but I think they’ll be amplified because the UIGEA is going to be proven ineffective,” he added.
It remains to be seen how long the authorities can honestly expect the banks and financial institutions in the United States to sift through literally millions of transactions on a daily basis in a bid to halt the transfer of funds to and from gambling sites.
Everything is still not in the clear though. Due to the nature of the way online gambling transactions are processed, sometimes it takes a few days before a credit card, or bank account is actually “charged” so the next couple weeks are still uncertain.
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· Written by Roger S · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
