Net Bet Blog

Not surprisingly, US banks are happy that the online gaming community is attacking the UIGEA regulations at all opportunity.

Implementation of UIGEA can ONLY cost US banks money and eat into already shrinking profits.

BANKERS APPLAUD ATTACK ON UIGEA (Update) [Online Casinos]

The Washington DC publication The Hill reports that the banking industry is cheering the fresh assault on the UIGEA (see previous Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa report) mounted by House Financial Services committee chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Congressman and presidential aspirant Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Congressman Frank has teamed up with the libertarian-minded Paul, who crusaded against big government during his recent White House bid, on legislation to block the contentious 2006 legislation by forbidding federal officials from writing rules to implement it. Those officials have already admitted that the regulations supporting the UIGEA are proving difficult to draft, with strong opposition from the financial industry that is required to act as policeman for the federal government.

The banking industry has flooded the Treasury and the Fed with complaints about their proposed rules, arguing that it is too difficult for banks to sort out payments for legal wagers — such as on horse races — and those that are illegal.

“The banking system is just not set up to sort out whether one payment is a legal payment and one payment is not,” said the director of congressional affairs for the Independent Community Bankers of America , Steve Verdier. “We think the [Frank-Paul] bill would give everyone the chance to take a breath.”

Charles Rothfeld, a lawyer at Mayer Brown who has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, said that the Frank-Paul legislation is not likely to pose any constitutional problems. “Congress gets to say the way in which its legislation is implemented. If it wants to issue legislation to preclude the promulgation of regulation, it can do that,” he argued.