By Alexis Russell

09/17/2008

                  Though the bulk of the Republican GOP has been fighting the legalization of online poker there have been a few champions who have refused to give up.  Luckily for U.S. players and the online poker rooms they’ve made a little headway in regulating online poker.  A new Act passed by the House Financial Services Committee could be the beginning of the end for the UIGEA.

                The Payment Systems Protection Act, or H.R. 6870, is the brainchild of Representative Barney Frank who has long been a supporter of legalizing online poker.  Frank’s bill was able to sway the Committee for a 30-19 vote in favor of the PSPA.  This effectively ensured that the Act will be going to the Congress next. 

                There are 3 main points to the Payment Systems Protection Act which basically is aiming to revamp the UIGEA.  The purpose of the PSPA as it stands now is to perform an economic impact study on, better define what is considered unlawful internet gambling and to make the UIGEA almost solely regulate just sports betting.

                All of these factors are working to pull online poker out from under the UIGEA.  One of the biggest problems with the UIGEA is that it is left up to financial institutions to determine if money is being processed for unlawful internet gambling.  This of course is a problem for the financial institutions since the UIGEA isn’t clear on what is illegal.  Frank is calling for a list to be created and circulated that will clearly state what is illegal and what is not so that there’s no confusion.  If all goes well in Congress online poker should fall under the legal side finally.