US Congress Representative Barney Frank has introduced a bill that is meant to overturn the existing UIGEA or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The main reason behind the introduction of this bill is being attributed to the fact UIGEA has seen the ire of a majority of the people. In order to bring the situation back to normalcy, Mr. Frank has attempted boldly trying to get the bill passed. Even the European Union has considered UIGEA is completely biased. It felt that most of the online gaming operators of European origin have incurred huge losses in the past while they were trading in the US online gaming industry.
One of the prime concerns of the EU is that the US has overstepped the line of commitments. Especially, those commitments it has made to the WTO in this regard. There might even chances that the decision will be in favour of the EU in case if it files a legal suite against the US. This seems to be a distant reality. As of now, the European Union is actively involved in carving out a strategy that will help in negotiating with the United States for a settlement, which would be good for both of them. In accordance, the discussions were actually started by the EU long before itself. But, due to the non-cooperation of the Bush government, those discussions never progressed in the way as anticipated by the EU officials.
This unfavourable outcome was to cast its spell on the relationship between the EU and the United States. The situation could be expected back to normalcy only after favourable decisions being taken after a series of strategic talks. In case of the discontinuation of UIGEA, European gaming organizers will be able to benefit the most. Also, American players will be able to visit gaming websites being operated from the EU as usual. This is seen as the foremost concern of the anti UIGEA bill that was introduced by Mr. Frank. It is expected that the bill will be passed instantly as per his expectations. The EU opines that if the bill is passed, it will be beneficial to the US as a legal approach can be formalized regarding the way online casino games are held.
The actual problem started when the American government has thwarted financial organizations from transferring funds and diverting them towards the online gaming websites of the European Union with the introduction of UIGEA. As a result many of the European gaming companies have lost a fortune in the stock exchanges. Also, there is no clear-cut idea regarding the classification of gaming websites. This resulted in the refusal of many credit card companies declining transactions that are made to purchase credits from the EU online gaming companies. The best advantage that the US government can get is that it can curb illegal transfer of funds. It can also straighten the issue of fair transfer of funds by financial firms.
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Currently, American online gamers on one hand and European gaming organizers on the other hand are reeling under heavy losses due to the strict implementation of UIGEA. The common analogy that is being circulated in both European Union and the US is that until and unless the UIGEA is scrapped, the matters cannot get better. What's more worse is that many of the European gaming companies have been filed with legal notices or sued even before the act was introduced. In case the anti UIGEA bill gets passed in the house, a lot of issues can be put to rest within no time. It needs to be seen how Barney Frank's attempt will be successful and up to what extent. There are even some other speculations those are doing rounds in the American political circles that Mr. Frank's bill will not be passed unanimously.
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