Poker gambling regulations had been under discussion at the US congress for over 6 years ever since the resolution, known as the UIGEA (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) had been passed on the Senate.
The aim of the new UIGEA bill is to reduce the already low number of internet gambling sites licensed in the US, more specifically, the online poker companies.
Some republicans had tried to reinforce it with further regulations during a session that took place on the last week of November this year. Fortunately, neither republicans nor democrats showed any support whatsoever to pass the bill.
The current US regulations don’t strictly forbid online poker, which is why companies as Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and PokerStars can still accept US gamblers. However, this new extension of the UIGEA would crush the already small online gambling sites by completely banning American gamers from this form of entertainment.
The internationally acclaimed financial advisor, PricewaterhouseCoopers or PwC, has already stated on several occasions that governments would be better off licensing and regulating online gambling; ignoring it won’t make it go away! Besides, regulating these sites and keeping the transparency of online games would increase the government’s tax income.
PwC published a report in 2011 on the profit and growth of global gambling, presenting the online gambling industry as one of the main forces of development, with the UK as the European leader on online regulations, accompanied by Italy, which is also making its way (but only with Italian licensed casinos). However, the Asian market will continue to rival Nevada with casinos in Macao and Singapore.