Department of Justice Indict in UIGEA Scam
The United States just won’t let online gambling return to America. Upon the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the American authorities have toughened their approach towards internet gambling operations. The U.S. Department of Justice has taken down several gambling operations in the United States and indicted seven people in soliciting betting using the web. The indicted were involved in four different companies that tried to circumvent the anti online casino bill. The firms used “misclassified credit card transactions” in order to fool financial companies to work with them and handle betting money.
According to the Unlawful Internet Enforcement Act, financial companies are forbidden from conducting business with companies that offer online casino gambling to American citizens. Gambling firms cannot accept payments or process deposits and they, basically, cannot generate revenue. This has caused the industry to leave the American market and search for new customers around the world. Americans still love to gamble and it’s not that hard finding people in America that would like to use online services; however, the trick is to convince credit card companies to work with you, and that’s exactly what these people were doing.
The prosecution has seized all assets that belong to the suspects with profits up to $150 million. There are a few famous names amongst the betting companies involved, and the Department of Justice is already making plans for future prosecutions. As gambling through the internet is not illegal in the United States, players are not in danger of prosecution. The authorities are only concerned with illegal money transfers and financial relationships between gambling firms and other companies. It’s a bit odd that the U.S. government wants private firms to enforce the law of anti online casino betting. Financial companies are not allowed to conduct business with the industry and the financial community must find ways to detect foul play. Hopefully, the bill will be overthrown all together and things will return to normal again.
