iMEGA vs. UIGEA. Will online gambling to the US? - Ecommerce Journal

[I Heart Gambling Online]

On Thursday this week the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) announced that it was contacted by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on the occasion of its response brief that was filed by the association in November last year in a legal challenge to declare the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) unconstitutional. The court informed the iMEGA about is availability in April 2009.

The main problem with the UIGEA is that the act has no accurate definition of what should be considered unlawful; instead the law imposed on financial institutions the responsibility to determine the legality of individual online gambling sites which is unconstitutional. The vagueness of the legislation plunged the whole industry into turmoil. The largest online poker room at the time, PartyPoker, vacated the U.S. market followed by others, including Paradise Poker and Pacific Poker. Then those who started departing the U.S. were payment processors like NETeller and Citadel. iMEGA has since been granted standing to sue to declare the UIGEA unconstitutional.

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