They Can't Stop the Online Casinos
Perhaps the most persuasive argument against the UIGEA is the fact that the US
banking and financial services industry stand firm in their claims that the
UIGEA blocks that are placed on transactions between US banks and offshore
online casinos is, quite simply, unenforceable. The federal officials and
politicians have essentially taken a flawed bill and instead of working out the
kinks of the legislation that were inherent they passed the problem on to the US
banks. The UIGEA gives no clear definition of the term “illegal internet
gambling” and instead mandates that the US banks and financial services
companies determine which online casinos are illegal and filter out the
transactions without any support from federal officials.
The US banking industry though was not consulted when the UIGEA enforcement
regulations were developed and the banks claim that the UIGEA is unenforceable.
The banks do not have the means to monitor every single US transaction and block
the ones that are questionably from offshore online casinos. Although the US
regulations require these blocks right now, a month in there are still loopholes
that are simply unavoidable. There is just no way for every bank in the US to
agree on which transactions fall under the undeniably ambiguous “illegal
internet gambling” term and there are no current standard procedures that can be
implemented across all of the US financial services industry.
As is the US government has put the entire burden of the online casino gambling
ban squarely on the shoulders of the US banks. These banks are now mandating
that the US government at least come out with a list of the banned sites as a
way to ensure that the banks themselves are not setting the standards for
legality in the US. |