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Posts Tagged ‘UIGEA’
Friday, December 10th, 2010
The Poker Players Alliance has been closely monitoring the current online poker legislation being touted by Harry Reid (D-NV) in the Senate, and the grassroots poker advocacy group released an E-Mail last night updating its 1+ million members to the current situation.
In the E-Mail PPA director John Pappas stated:
“…we have heard and strongly considered the concerns a number of our online poker playing members have raised, specifically regarding the 15 month “blackout period” contained in the draft bills that have circulated in recent days. The blackout period means that upon enactment of the proposed internet poker law there would be fifteen months where NO licensed Internet poker would be available to U.S. players… Frankly, the proposed blackout period is absurd and the PPA opposes it. And we have fought – and continue to fight – tooth and nail against it. But it is a reality. There will likely be a blackout period of some length included in any legislation that is passed, whether it is in this Congress or future Congresses”
The willingness of the PPA, and online poker sites such as PokerStars, to support this bill despite the 15-month blackout period shows perhaps how dire the current situation of online poker in the United States truly is. With UIGEA now fully enacted, it has become increasingly difficult to deposit and withdraw funds at online poker sites, and many of the more reputable online payment processors have either been charges, or threatened with prosecution.
If the current trend continues it would seem that the online poker tables would be full of only the professional players willing to jump through the hoops necessary to deposit and withdraw at an online poker site; not to mention that only the most unscrupulous payment processors would continue to serve the industry –so your checks may come from a company called “Fly by Night Payment Processing” or something to that effect.
Tags: Advocacy Group, Blackout Period, Director John, Draft Bills, E Mail, Fifteen Months, Fly By Night, Harry Reid, Internet Poker, John Pappas, Online Poker Legislation, Online Poker Sites, Payment Processing, Payment Processors, Poker Players, Poker Tables, PokerStars, Professional Players, Tooth And Nail, UIGEA
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Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
On June 1st the Norwegian government put new gambling laws into effect. Now with the laws in effect customers who have Norwegian bank and credit cards are having trouble placing any kind of electronic payment. Not only are payments to online poker rooms and casinos being denied but other online transactions as well.
The new laws in Norway are similar to the UIGEA in the United States. Financial institutions are supposed to deny online transactions from online casinos. The list created by the government for banks to deny has two names on it, Norsk Tipping and Rikstoto.
However since transactions are taking place electronically the automated system is not only blocking online casino and poker payments it is also blocking payments for other online charges such as casinos that may be abroad or cruise shops and other tourist destinations. Those who have this problem must enter in many different contract agreements with Norway VISA to be able to have their transactions go through.
The new law was created to protect those who are addicted to gambling. But it does not seem to be working. Players in Norway can easily get a foreign bank account via online and then use that account to play online casino games so the new bill is affecting just a small portion of those who live in Norway.
Tags: Automated System, Bank Cards, Banks, Contract Agreements, Credit Cards, Cruise, Electronic Payment, Financial Institutions, Gambling Laws, New Laws, Norsk, Norway, Norway Visa, Norwegian Government, Online Casino Games, Online Casinos, online poker, Poker Rooms, Small Portion, Tourist Destinations, UIGEA, United States, Visa Cardholders
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Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
 Gambling in Australia is big business. Players have been fans of slot machines for years and now poker has become the new game to play. There are many poker pros coming out of Australia and they are helping to spread the game in the country. Now many residents of the state are going online to wager their cash in poker games. And even though players are enjoying online gambling, officials of the country are not so keen on the idea.
Government officials are starting to question how online gambling will affect the country and they may be creating a similar ban such as the United States UIGEA ban. This past Wednesday the Australian government announced they do not support the liberalization of online gambling. This announcement was made despite the Productivity Commission giving a positive recommendation for online gambling.
The Australian government will be looking at regulatory approaches that other countries have used which includes the United States. The government will then decide if online gambling will be good for the Australian government to profit and be able to regulate.
Australia is just another country in a long list of countries and areas in the world that are considering the option of not allowing online gambling in their area. Although people around the world would love to have the option to enjoy online gambling, governments are overriding what their residents would like and creating bans against online gambling.
Tags: Australia, Australian Government, Business Players, Government Officials, Governments, Liberalization, List Of Countries, New Game, online gambling, poker, Poker Games, Poker Pros, Productivity Commission, Regulatory Approaches, Slot Machines, UIGEA, United States
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Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
 For years online poker sites have been booming with traffic especially since the early 2000’s when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker. Players saw that qualifying online could result in a major poker win as well as career so everyone seemed to be jumping on the poker bandwagon. But now it seems as though the online poker world has gotten into a rut. Could it be that online poker is becoming a thing of the past?
Many online poker rooms seem to be suffering as their traffic numbers are down. Research and statistics have shown that many of the major poker rooms traffic has been down for a few months now. One would think that currently the numbers would be down because two of the biggest events in sports are taking place: the 2010 WSOP and the World Cup.
Many players will be playing in Vegas as we speak and others are placing sporting bets on the World Cup. So this would explain the downturn right now but what explains the loss in traffic numbers from the previous months?
Such sites as Absolute Poker and Cake Poker are showing significant drops in numbers. According to an article on the ipokerrace website, Absolute Poker has seen a drop of over 1,000 players over the past six months for their average. Cake Poker is down almost half of their average of players.
However the most shocking site to have a downturn is possible Full Tilt Poker. The number two poker room has lost almost 5,000 payers over the past six months. It looks as though the site has lost their players due to new sites that have opened up in the online poker market.
Interestingly enough, PokerStars has still been doing well, holding their own in the industry. The site has continued to stay on track and keep their player numbers. Overall the industry is suffering right now as more and more countries decide to implement UIGEA like bans so players cannot play internationally. And of course with the UIGEA now in effect those in the US are also going to be affected. And there have also been security breaches at online poker rooms such as those on the CEREUS network. All of these reasons could be why the online poker rooms are currently lacking in their player numbers. Hopefully this is just a phase and players will log on to bring the numbers back up for the top online poker rooms.
Tags: absolute poker, Bandwagon, Bets, Cake Poker, Chris Moneymaker, Downturn, Full Tilt Poker, Online Poker Rooms, Player Numbers, Poker Online, Poker Players, Poker Room, Poker Sites, Poker World, Six Months, Traffic Numbers, UIGEA, World Cup, World Series, World Series Of Poker, WSOP
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Thursday, May 20th, 2010
 As online poker in the United States gets closer to reality, there are still a few in the political realm that are trying to keep the card game from becoming legalized and regulated in the state. One such person is Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus. The representative has stated that players of the game are like addicts to an illegal drug and he says he will do everything he can to prevent the game from becoming legal.
Bachus is a republican member of the House of Representatives and he is also a ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. Bachus commented: “internet poker is the crack cocaine of gambling’ and he says he cares about the dangers of gambling.
Bachus has stated that young people are particularly vulnerable and that it is important we do not put a casino in every dorm room in the country. Bachus also has stated that online gambling is very addictive but this is very contradictory to recent reports that have surfaced in the online gambling community. The reports have shown that online players are not more inclined to become addicted to players elsewhere, like at land casinos.
Just last week Bachus led a group of republicans, all congressmen, to petition Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. The petition was created to demand the rejection of a bid by the Poker Players Alliance. The PPA wanted online poker removed from the activities that are deemed illegal by the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. The UIGEA is set to go into effect on June 1st and the PPA has been trying to have poker removed from the list of illegal games.
Tags: Alabama, Card Game, Crack Cocaine, Dorm Room, Fed Chairman, Financial Services Committee, Gaming Enforcement, House Financial Services Committee, Illegal Drug, Illegal Games, Internet Gaming, Internet Poker, Land Casinos, online poker, Poker Players, Ppa, Republican Member, Spencer Bachus, Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary, UIGEA, Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act
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