UIGEA Challenge Drags On

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed in the fall of 2006. The entire American and global online gambling industry has changed entirely since, with the US falling off the gambling industry's radar and the entire industry heading around the globe, leaving North America behind.

For American gamblers too, the world of gambling has changed. Not allowed under the Act to make deals on the Internet that involved gambling have kept millions away from their favorite sites and pastime hobbies. This is the focus of the charges filed by Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (IMEGA) against the US Department of Justice.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, the DoJ, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are charged of infringing Americans' right, protected under the Constitution, to engage in Internet commerce. A categorical ban on transmission of funds if the end result is illegal in some unspecified place is a dangerous precedent, the charges say.

At this point, as another round is completed and the next one is set to begin, in a match that began on June 5, once the case was brought to court, the US District Court of New Jersey, Trenton Division, has allowed for the defendants to take until September 4 to prepare their response. They will then be asked again to defend their Act in the face of charges that their involvement in Americans' personal practices is constitutionally legitimate.