While there are fewer online gambling options for U.S. residents these days, this isn't to say the act of choosing an online to open a real money account with is any easier than what it used to be - back when just about every online casino in business primarily catered to U.S. players. To give you an idea of what the online gambling industry used to be like, we must take a trip back to the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

If you are new to online gambling, it was in the year 2006 that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was underhandedly passed into law as an attachment to a port security bill guaranteed to get Congress' approval. Known to many people, including Congressman and House Financial Service Committee Chairman, Barney Frank, as "the stupidest law ever passed" (since prohibition in the 1920's), the UIGEA scared off several online betting companies from doing business with U.S. citizens. Some of these companies included pioneering software developers, Playtech and Cryptologic, as well as third party payment processors specializing in the online gambling sector, such as Neteller and Click 2 Pay.

Software developers like Playtech and Cryptologic own and operate all of their online casino properties, and therefore have more on the line as single entities, whereas software providers like Microgaming and Real Time Gaming license their software to individual operators, thus giving these properties the choice to cater to U.S. players. Neteller, which was the largest and most active eWallet processor of funds used to gamble online, had no choice but to cease doing business with U.S. players when Neteller's founders were detained by legal authorities in a New York airport.

These days, certain U.S. anti-online gambling States focus less of their attention on online casinos than they do at keeping internet sports betting services and payment processors at bay. Nonetheless, this is precisely why many Microgaming online casinos do no permit U.S. players residing in a handful of specific U.S. States to make wagers. See our Microgaming Restrictions page for more details and a list of these properties.

All the while, the UIGEA continues to prove quite ineffective in its enforcement stage. To be precise, the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve simply do not know how to enforce the UIGEA and all its contradictions, such as giving carve-outs to internet horse racing, lotteries and fantasy football. The critical tongue of the powerful American Banking Association (representing 95% of U.S. financial institutions), countless gaming trade associations and an increasing number of Congressional members are not helping the cause of the UIGEA either.

In the meantime and as things stand now, multiple pieces of pro-online gambling legislation are making the rounds in the U.S. Congress, including a bill calling for an in-depth study of online gambling by the National Academy of Sciences (Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley's Internet Gambling Study Act), a bill to legalize online poker (Congressman Robert Wexler's Skill Game Protection Act), protectionist legislation to keep betting companies from being unfairly persecuted (the UIGEA Clarification Act), a bill to paralyze the UIGEA (Congressman Barney Frank's aforementioned Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act) and a bill to actually tax and regulate online casinos (Congressman Jim McDermott's Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act), all of which are gaining widespread support.

One need only look at the regulatory success in the United Kingdom, where online gambling is legally regulated under the 2005 UK Gambling Act. Anti-gambling activists would have people believe that legalizing online gambling only causes more gambling activities. However, according to ICM Research (in partnership with the UK Gambling Commission), between 2007 and 2008, there was no rise whatsoever in gambling activities, which showed that 8.8% of UK adults had gambled online - with over half this figure solely participating in online lotteries.

Even the majority of U.S. citizens who do not gamble online believe it is a person's right to decide for themselves. According to major polls, approximately 70% of  U.S. citizens are in support of online gambling regulation. And of those who are not, the majority simply do not know the facts behind regulation and how it can be more effective at preventing problem and underage gambling than enforcing no regulation at all. The bottom line is that U.S. citizens are going to gamble online, whether a small minority like it or not. At Online Casino VP, we know this all to well and pledge to do our part to keep players from being led astray by unscrupulous online casinos. Please visit this page every so often for updates on the latest issues that affect the U.S. facing online gambling industry.

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