Be prepared for the showdown that will determine the future of online casinos in the USA. As far as you know, the notorious anti-gambling UIGEA act should be enforced quite soon. As the matter of fact, it was passed 4 years ago in 2006, but then postponed due to the protests of various political and social parties. The deadline is the first of June that is coming closer and closer. It’s just a little more than 3 weeks till we find out what’s gonna happen with online casinos in the United States. So, what are the current tendencies? Will UIGEA be postponed once again or not? Let’s figure it out.
UIGEA that stands for Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is aimed to make all the financial transactions to online gambling establishments illegal. To speak more precisely, all American banks will bear the responsibility to monitor all the transactions executed via debit and credit cards. If any person is caught on depositing accounts of the offshore gambling sites, then he or she will get into some serious troubles. Enforcement of the UIGEA will damage internet gambling industry not only on the territory of the United States, but all over the world actually as the American gamblers make the substantial share of the whole community of online players all together.
However, there is still hope that the situation will change for good. There are some pro-gambling powers that claim that adult people cannot be deprived of their constitutional right to manage their own money as they find right. They believe that gambling is a way of entertainment that should be paid for as well as all the others things in the world. American Congressmen Jim McDermott and Barney Frank do anything they can to overturn the UIGEA Act. They offered the bills aimed at regulating the online gambling sphere instead of prohibiting it. McDermott’s bill proposes a solid system of taxation of online casinos that would be really valuable for national budget. Under the proposed bill, 6% tax will be imposed on all the financial transactions to the gambling sites. This substantial money will be transferred right to the budget of the state where a gambler resides. As for the federal budget, additional 2% will be transferred to it from all the deposits made. According to some approximate estimations, such a taxation scheme would bring more than $30 billion to the state budgets and about $42 to the federal budget. These amounts are desperately needed right now due to the acute economic recession. They can be used to finance educational and health institutions as well as for many other urgent matters.
Both Frank and McDermott claim that such revenue just can’t be ignored especially considering the fact that even if the UIGEA is enforced American gambling lovers will still gamble. They will break the laws and visit the offshore sites giving money to all other countries except for their native land. What’s more, he insists that we all should have a right to gamble without any governmental interference.
However, advocates of online gambling are still outnumbered. Opponents of US online casinos include numerous sport leagues and Christian organisations. Sport leagues claim that legalization of US online casinos will increase the amount of wagers made on every game. And most religious organizations believe that such a bill will cause the spreading of online gambling beyond acceptable limits that in its turn will lead to more cases of compulsory gambling and gambling addiction.
Pro-gambling bill should have been heard in the House Financial Services Committee couple days ago, but was postponed. The next hearing is due later in May. We will keep you tuned about all the developments crucial for the future of US online casinos.
