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With June 1 looming, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has been busy trying to understand what will become of current online poker prohibition in regard to its enforcement.
The compliance deadline for banking institutions does not go into effect until June 1.
As part of the Safe Port Act passed in October 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) prohibits the transfer of funds from a financial institution to an illegal Internet gambling site, while specifically excluding fantasy sports, online lotteries, and horse/harness racing. The banking sector insists it will be unable to differentiate between transactions for online poker and those pertaining to online lotteries and horse racing.
The compliance deadline had been pushed back from its original date of October 1, 2009.
John Pappas, the Poker Players Alliance Executive Director, admitted the last six months have not been especially productive.
"Unfortunately, we haven't had much success legislatively," Pappas readily admitted. "(But) the PPA hasn't stopped. We have filed another petition [that has] the support of 22 members of Congress. We're working to get broader support. This petition isn't a delay, per se, but it would exempt poker and other peer-to-peer gaming from the enforcement of the UIGEA."
The Treasury and Federal Reserve have yet to respond to the PPA's petition.
Pappas does agree that the June 1 date will not usher in a Doomsday scenario witnessed the months immediately following passage of UIGEA. Nearly all the European publicly traded betting firms pulled out of the US Market by year's end. A series of arrests involving online poker payment processors resulted in a number of privately held gambling groups following suit.
"Nothing in the UIGEA makes it illegal for individuals to play (poker)," Pappas stressed.
The June 1 date comes at a time when the US Government and some states have sought their own enforcement to quash online gambling.
The US Attorney's Office out of the Southern District of New York and Baltimore are currently conducting investigations into various payment processing businesses. This past week, the founder of one such company, Douglas Rennick, pled guilty to money laundering charges. Another man, Daniel Tzvetkoff, was arrested in Las Vegas last month, also charged with money laundering via his Australian-based payment processing group Instabill, Inc.. The state of Washington and federal authorities are looking at the types of payment arrangements between online poker rooms and Las Vegas casino companies over recent years.
Rumors also surfaced last month of an ongoing grand jury investigation into Full Tilt Poker, however, sources from within that online poker firm insisted to Gambling911.com that such rumors are without merit and "speculative".
Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com
