Effort to Fight Online Casino Ban Continues in Congress

As another online payment processor says goodbye to its American business, the battle over the future of the online casino industry continues with a new Congressional bill. In 2006, the American Congress passed a bill as part of the Safe Port Act called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which while not banning online gambling outright, effectively crippled the online casino market. An industry in which 2500 gambling sites brought in $15 billion dollars of revenue saw half its income disappear in the 12 months following the bill's passing.

Two Congressmen, Democrat Barney Frank and Republican Ron Paul, are spearheading the latest effort to repeal this ban. Their efforts combine both moral and practical concerns. The two have expressed their belief that morality should be beyond the reach and jurisdiction of the federal government and that it is simply impossible to practically regulate and block all online gambling-related activity by online payment processors. Besides the fact that the UIGEA provides no clear guidelines or explanation as to how it should be enforced, many an online casino is based on foreign territory, making it off-limits to the arm of the American federal government.

Frank and Paul hope that the future of online gambling and casino games holds not a ban but licensing and regulating, leading to billions of dollars in taxes for the government instead of the current situation which sends individual gamblers underground, sending their money to foreign casinos.

Only this week, only payment processor ePassporte announced that it will cease to accept American customers. ePassporte joins Neteller and many others who have stopped doing business in the States.