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A significant point made early on in the proposal
takes some edge off US gamblers fear of prosecution
under UIGEA
It states that the rules govern only those that are
participants in a designated payment system or are
financial transaction providers. An end-user or customer
is not defined as a participant and is therefore not
covered by the proposed rules.
Another
significant point that the regulations appear to stop
short of requiring U.S. banks to block checks their
customers make to online casinos, but require banks
to halt debit and credit card payments.
Although
just released yesterday many analyst are saying the
regulations are vague and weak and lean in favor of
the banks who would be ultimately be deputized to
enforce this new law by stopping gambling related
transactions.
The
federal reserve has been actively involved in compiling
this draft and states that the complications of implementing
a list of what is and isn't illegal with Internet
gambling is difficult because the UIGEA relies on
underlying individual state laws to determine those
issues.
And
the costs of implementing this list by the US government
to deem certain transactions as unlawful for the banks
to use as a guideline were deemed by the Treasury
to be 'significant'.
They estimate that it would take 368,254 hours of
work to accurately research and interpret all of the
state, federal, and tribal gaming laws to implement
these regulations.
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