Under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was enacted in the United States last October, it is illegal for any financial company to work with online casino firms. This step critically damaged the online casino industry in American and resulted in most firms moving their business elsewhere, mainly Europe. ECHO, one of the e-wallet companies that offered its services to online casino players, has managed to dodge prosecution following the company's approval to pay $2.3 million. The Southern District of New York confirmed that the online payment service provider will earn a clear slate and will not be prosecuted for its involvement with the online casino industry.
Most online casino players prefer to work with an e-cash processor instead of giving their personal financial details to online casino sites. People like to play at various sites and spreading their personal information across the web is never recommended. Firm like ECHO allows online casino players to open an account, and use their e-wallet account with various online casinos. That way the player only hands out his information to one company - a firm outside of the online gambling industry - and the chances of fraud are minimal to non-existing. This process has become illegal since the enactment of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and as part of the settlement, the firm agreed in helping the United States authorities in their investigation into so-called illegal online gambling.
The companies assents - valued at over $21 million - were frozen by the Southern District of New York. Some of these assents belong to online casino players that used the NETeller e-wallet service. The company worked with NETeller and handled it's financial affairs in the United States. One of the legal problems that aroused as a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was that money that belongs to private online casino players was confiscated by U.S. authorities. Now, with prosecution out of the question, hopefully, the money will return to the players that it belongs to and to the company.
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