New Bill Would Change UIGEA
Legislators are working with gambling laws in the US. There are many people who want to change things, but the problem is big. So far the UIGEA still stands and that bans banks from processing transactions that deal with gambling. The biggest problem is that banks are tasked with flagging and monitoring gambling activities. Legislators are around who want to change the laws, but they are having a difficult time pushing through bills to amend the UIGEA. So far there are a few key players in the fight, but their goals are to do more than to discuss possibilities. The overall goal is to bring a new bill into the mix or at minimum amend the UIGEA. This new configuration of the bill would allow for gaming companies to operate legally. In turn, they would have access to the millions in tax revenue dollars available. Gamblers were unable to wager in the states and so they moved to offshore companies, taking their millions of gambling dollars with them. Legislators look back at that time and realize how much they lost in terms of revenue and how it is unrecoverable at this time. Still—some are pushing for changes that will take advantage of the tax revenue dollars coming in via gambling.
The changes aren’t coming as quickly as hoped for though. Legislators are pushing for a passing of a new bill that would change the laws, but the timeline is not as hasty as wanted. If the issue isn’t sorted out in the near future, it seems that it may be shelved for another two years. That is two year’s worth of gambling dollars that would be fueled out of the country. Gambling is a billion dollar business and is expected to more than double in worth in the next four years, so that leaves the US as a loss of billions. If something isn’t finished soon, this is going to be the outcome and legislators will lose the advantage of millions of tax revenue dollars. Post recession, this is not a good time to pass up the money. It would do a lot for turning the market around that much quicker.
Tags: bill, legal, legislator, UIGEA
