US Banks Unhappy With UIGEA Regulations...By Hartley Henderson - MajorWager.com inc

March-31-2008,
U.S. Banks Unhappy With UIGEA Regulations...By Hartley Henderson

The American Banking Association (ABA), which acts as the spokesman for most U.S. banks, recently stated its unhappiness with the UIGEA regulations released by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve last October. In particular the organization was upset that the government didn't provide clear rules on how to implement the statute and instead shifted the burden of drafting the rules to banks and other payment processing organizations. The ABA pointed out that the responsibility was shifted to the banks because the government, in spite of its sophisticated technology and secret services, could not close down offshore gambling enterprises, nor could they adequately determine a method to block transactions from those companies. The government made several failed efforts to block offshore gambling transactions but couldn't succeed, so instead they decided to put the onus on payment processors and banks via the UIGEA. Unfortunately the government failed to give the banks direction about how to do block those transactions (because they clearly didn't have a clue if and how this could be done), so they decided instead to punt the ball to the banks and have them deal with it. Regular readers of my articles shouldn't be surprised with the ABA's conclusion. In October of 2007, when the regulations were drafted I wrote the following:

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