iMEGA and Harrah\’s. California Senator R. Wright. US Treasury Department.
The good: iMEGA and Harrah\’s.
The Interactive Media Entertaiment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) filed a lawsuit to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which is the law that prohibits state-regulated sports betting.
US casinos operator Harrah\’s Entertainment is understood to be the most vocal proponent of regulation of online gambling in the United States and a strong backer of Barney Frank\’s internet gambling bill, while all other American casino operators remain silent on the matter.
The bad: California Senator Roderick Wright
California State Sen. Roderick Wright has been indicted on charges of false declaration of candidacy, perjury and voter fraud going back to 2007, when he changed his voter registration in preparation for his run to the State Senate in November 2008.
A strong voice in the civil rights community, the now former online poker darling Sen Wright became popular amongst online gamblers when he became the main power behind efforts to legalize online poker in California.
The ugly: Treasury Department
While Barney Frank\’s bill lost momentum and plans to change US online gambling laws will likely be delayed to next year and only if Republicans will accept to co-operate with Democrats in Congress, Americans are now trying to make sense of a rule recently proposed by the Treasury Department to combat financing to terrorist groups and that would require all US banks to report payments in and out of the country along with the information to identify who made such transactions.
The consensus among US-facing gambling operators and gamblers alike is that this rule further adds to restrictions imposed by the UIGEA and if enforced has the potential to shut down offshore gambling for good.
Meanwhile, after years of negotiation, Sportingbet agreed to pay $33m to US authorities in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement for the company\’s internet gambling activities in the United States between 1998 and 2006.
The CEO of Sportingbet, that sold its US operation at the end of 2006 for a nominal sum writing down hundreds of millions of dollars, said the online gambling group now looks at the future with increased confidence.
Other news from the United States include a ruling of the Washington Supreme Court upholding the state ban on internet poker, Arizona\’s Goldwater Bank forfeiting over $700k for having transacted over 13 million dollars on behalf of online poker sites, the Kentucky Supreme Court telling (again) the owners of 141 gambling domains to show up in court if they don\’t want the state to seize the domain names.
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