Online casino law is "unworkable" according to expert
Federal organisations in America have not done enough to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, a senior lawyer has said.
Gaming law expert Nelson Rose says federal regulators "simply gave up" when faced with the challenge of acting upon the law set out by the UIGEA in 2006. He went on to say that the distinction between legal and illegal gaming in America was vague and prevented proper enforcement of the law.
In an interview with an online publication, Rose commented that, despite current attempts by the government to clarify the definition of illegal and legal gaming, online casino gamers in America can "basically continue to do what they are doing now," in regards to gaming in online casinos.
The UIGEA stated that it was the responsibility of financial institutions - banks and credit card companies - to halt the transactions between online casino gamers and off-shore online casinos, although as the law failed to distinguish what was legal or illegal gaming, this was impossible.
Rose's remarks that financial institutions have been lenient in monitoring payments between individuals and online casino companies and that the government had conceded that "there are no reasonably practical steps that a US participant [bank] could take to prevent their consumer customers from sending restricted transactions cross-border".
Rose's comments come after the news that the US government is planning to implement a law which would require financial institutions to invent a new system to track payments made from individuals to online casinos. The move has provoked strong reactions from the online casino community with online organisations claiming the move is irresponsible so close to the end of the Bush administration.