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Details on Barney Frank’s plan against the UIGEA. Thought everyone would be interested.
Very good news :bigsmile:
I like this guy
Frank will not be taking the angle against the UIGEA that says the bill was passed deceitfully, or that no one had a chance to amend the bill, or vote on that specific portion of the Safe Port Act. Instead, Frank is going after the UIGEA by saying it takes away the rights of basic American freedom.
But from the article it seems that the focus is on carving out poker from the UIGEA, where does that leave us for online casinos? And if it is carved out making online poker legal while leaving online casinos illegal; what a nightmare that will be for the payment processors to identify which traffic is poker and which is casino if a provider offers both.
But anyhow if he even succeeds with just carving out poker it is a step in the right direction afterall rome was not built in a day.
Sounds to me what it is. Carve out Poker and leave Sportsbooks and Casinos still illegal. Just more Hypocracy. We will have to wait and see.
It sounded to me that it was not about the poker carve-out at all. The poker carve-out will be one very small part of his bill, and the poker carve-out as a separate piece of legistalation that the the PPA is proposing is all but dead in the water, according to Frank.
The good news is that Barney Frank is a serious politician who heads a very relavent Committee and he is very adamant about changing the UIGEA. In what way, we do not know, we simply know he is going to go after it in a serious way that will not be swept under the rug.
My guess is that this is driven by the banks and not the gaming industry.
The banks and the poker and gambling folks have become “strange bedfellows”, i.e. are joined by circumstance.
I can’t see how they will be able to isolate poker activity from casino as a lot of places now offer both from the same login or at least very close links between the two.
I see this as a very positive move, but lets not get to excited yet, it will take quite some time for things to change, if indeed they do.
Dominique wrote:My guess is that this is driven by the banks and not the gaming industry.This is definately a bank issue. When we covered the first Washington protest the week before Bush signed the UIGEA into law we reported that the banks already had succeeded in lobbying against the law. Unfortunately, what we heard was a rumor and we still have not been able to confirm it, however, it is now understood to be more than a rumor, that banks have indeed succesfully lobbied out some of the requirements put on them to enforce this bill. The latest we have heard is that once the regulations are put into place some regulations will be too difficult for the banks to implement and they will not be required to implement them, thus the industry will not be completely shut off to depositing/withdrawing methods.
All that being said, the restrictions are still too difficult for banks to implement and that, along with the PPA support, along with the brand new WTO ruling, is what I personally believe Frank will use to repeal the UIGEA.
CGW wrote:All that being said, the restrictions are still too difficult for banks to implement and that, along with the PPA support, along with the brand new WTO ruling, is what I personally believe Frank will use to repeal the UIGEA.With the banks’ backing, this is an entirely different fight and one with a real chance of success in my opinion.
CGW wrote:All that being said, the restrictions are still too difficult for banks to implement and that, along with the PPA support, along with the brand new WTO ruling, is what I personally believe Frank will use to repeal the UIGEA.These are the absolute keys:
1) The banking industry is screaming because they don’t want to have to put the work into implementing this bill, for absolutely zero gain (in essence, a severe cost). What profit incentive is there for the banking community to implement such a bill ?
2) WTO ruling is definitely a feather in our cap…..just wish the news came out on Monday, instead of Friday.
3) Barney Frank is an extremely intelligent, witty, and respected member of Congress. Couldn’t ask for a better person to serve our plight. You can be rest assured that Frank is getting an earful from the banking committee, given his chairman role.
Still, it will be a long, uphill battle. It will take years to reverse the damage caused by UIGEA, if at all. Let’s not forget this, and keep things in total perspective. It is so much easier to pass a bill like this, than it is to reverse it. And getting Congress to reverse it, may be construed as political suicide to Republicans and Democrats alike (who wants to be know as the Congress-person who advocates gambling ?????)
Still, a glimour of hope…..
