The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed in the USA just 2 years ago and since it came into force legal battles over its effectiveness concerning banning of online gambling in the country have been raging continually. From the very moment it was first appeared, the usefulness of the UIGEA has been brought into question. A lot of loopholes and faults in the law have been revealed since that time. At the moment, even government officials have recognized its shortcomings, and now serious talks on a total law reform as regards online gambling are being held.

The UIGEA was developed to forbid online gambling by restricting banks and credit cards from processing payments for online gambling sites. But, lots of aspects of the law were undefined or unnoticed, thus a great deal confusion was caused to the financial institutions. For instance, the UIGEA didn’t define what transactions were deemed to be illegal, it didn’t make a distinction between different types of online gambling either.

What’s more, the UIGEA also believed that foreign online casino gambling sites break the US laws by offering their services to US citizens. The EU court has recently declared that this violates World Trade Organization rules. In spite of the fact that the law has been causing considerable damages to countless companies and legislations, for example those filed by Antigua and Barbuda, the USA also failed to comply with the hearings reprimands.

Republican Barney Frank has been struggling for a legal reform for online gambling since the UIGEA’s introduction. His voice is being heard at last.