September 4, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Not great news: The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that the UIGEA was not unconstitutional. Better news: In the decision, the court stated that the act “does not make any gambling activity illegal.”
Rather, the court continued, whether or not Internet gambling is legal is decided by “how the law of the state from which the bettor initiates the bet would treat that bet."
So, dodging somewhat the issue of just what the UIGEA is supposed to do, the U.S. government has now clarified the fact what it does not do: It doesn't make Internet gambling illegal. That is to be decided by each state.
iMEGA sees this as a positive, with chairman Joe Brennan Jr. stating that the language was a silver lining. "We lost the decision," he said. "But the court gave us an awful lot to work with going forward." iMEGA was the party that brought the case to court.
Mr. Brennan went on to explain that, since there are six states where Internet gambling violates state laws, "there are 44 states where this is an opportunity for Internet gaming to become regulated and normalized," he said.
Get more details at the Wall Street Journal, here.