You may have seen in the news that the US Treasury Department has issued a “Final Rule” on the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, to go into effect January 19, 2009.
The act primarily regulates money transfers between U.S. financial institutions and gaming sites. As you know some poker sites (Party) and some banks voluntarily changed their policies in regard to U.S. players long before the rule was to start being enforced, making it harder to get money deposited at poker sites. Now the act officially becomes the rule of law on January 19.
Do you think anything will change, and should we be worried?
Here's a good list of the news and commentary on this issue:
http://pokerplayersalliance.org/headlines/2008/11/10/selected-coverage-of-uigea-finalization/
There's also the situation going on in Kentucky, where the state government is trying to block access from users in the state to a list of 141 Internet domains associated with gambling. I'm glad I don't live there, but should we be worried about a trend?
I'm thinking of making sure my online bankroll is of sufficient size to avoid ever going broke, in case I can't make future deposits if needed. I really doubt that the offshore companies like FullTilt are going to block U.S. players from playing. Any opinions on that?
You'll always be able to get your money out, by having them send you a check if nothing else. So that doesn't worry me at all.