The 270 UIGEA Deadline Ends Today: Now What?

Today, July 10th the deadline for the Treasury Department to release regulations for the implementation of the UIGEA is officially past due.

The regulations which would force banks to comply with the UIGEA to stop gambling transactions online have been extended after 9 months of waiting.

Steve Laughton told CompatiblePoker.com that the regulations are not yet ready to be published. Today happens to be the end of the 270 day allotted time period. Instead they expect to see regulations issued sometime later this month. Steve Laughton was the email contact listed at the Reginfo.gov for the UIGEA updates.

There is still uncertainty in the air about future regulation dates. In two separate emails sent to Laughton, one stated they would “hopefully” have regulations in place this month. The second email replied that they would have regulations in place “soon” this month. Both emails were received within an hour apart of each other yet imply different regulation release dates.

No further specific updates were given on possible timeframes or strength of the regulations from Laughton.

In previous weeks things have looked positive for online gambling in the US including Seattle based lawyer suing the State over the UIGEA, almost 600,000 US citizens joining the PokerPlayersAllianace and IMEGA seeking and injunction against the UIGEA.

As Gambling911 reported earlier, the impact of the UIGEA in this years World Series of Poker has been major with a large decline in registrants for the Main Event which began earlier this week.

For now poker and casino gambling continues online in the United States. Players are getting accustomed to sitting on their hands and continue to wait and see if their freedoms are taken away.

-----

News Source: Roger Shriver
US Poker updates: CompatiblePoker.com:  July 11, 2007 1:19 am ET