The United States government has officially decided to delay implementation of UIGEA (the online gambling ban) for six months.
On top of all the smaller elements that went to towards the making of this decision, there are two main factors that seem to have driven the thinking here.
Firstly, we have Barney Frank’s bill to legalize, regulate and tax online gambling. This bill has been gaining a lot of support recently and it does certainly seem to make sense to wait while so much momentum is gathering to drive the situation in the opposite direction.
Secondly, a large part of the implementation of UIGEA would revolve around tracking the movement of money and in particular at an individual consumer level. This type of activity would require a massive commitment from banks both in terms of human and infrastructural resources.
The banking industry is already in a very fragile state at this time and the government seems to have been of the view that putting this kind of additional pressure on the domestic financial system at this time would not be in the best interests of the country.
In legislative terms six months is a very short period of time but it is nonetheless a window of time in which it is now possible for something positive to happen.
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