How it Works
Supporters of a regulated US online casino gambling industry may be a bit
confused right now with the state of US politics – there is just a lot going on
at the federal and the state levels. At the federal level, the internet gambling
industry is blocked by the UIGEA which makes it illegal for the processing of
financial transactions with internet gambling companies, but does not include a
blanket illegality for US citizens to gamble at the online casinos. The
regulation at the state level is the part that really covers the actions of the
poker and internet gamblers themselves, the federal legislation only acts as a
backup measure to the states that actually have internet gambling policies and
legislation already in place.
Although some states are now pushing the lines of legality by making blanket
statements that the online casinos are illegal, that is not wholly true. There
are currently only six US states that have very specific internet gambling
legislation in place to stop the online casino sites from operating in the state
market. Other states though are taking the federal legislation one step further
than is actually appropriate by asserting that internet gambling is flat-out
illegal. This is happening most notably in Massachusetts right now but is a
growing trend in more conservative states.
The online casinos have caught a pretty bad rap over the past several years
because of the UIGEA and the many false assertions from the opposition that
internet gambling is both unsafe, and illegal. There are still states accepting
US gamblers and circumventing the federal level legislation – this is ok on a
certain level because the UIGEA does not pertain to individual gamblers. But on
the other hand, it is certainly up to the online gamblers to ensure that they
reside in a state with no bans and blocks at the state level against internet
gambling. |