The U.S. Court of Appeals made a ruling today upholding the 2006 UIGEA. The suit was brought by Interactive Media challenging that the UIGEA was unconstitutional.
A panel with 3 judges ruled that since the UIGEA did not actually make online gambling illegal they would not overturn the decision. The UIGEA tries to curb the funding of online gambling which falls upon the banks to enforce but doesn’t actually make it illegal to play at online casinos.
There is currently a debate happening in Washinton with many lawmakers looking to legalize and regulate online gambling. Senators like Barney Frank are trying to look for new ways to generate money in a slowing economy and Online Gambling would help generate billions for the US economy.
The decision did however open up a new argument with the judges ruling that it depends on how the state handles a “bet”. Meaning that states may be able to regulate and tax online gambling and it would be on a state by state basis similar to how brick and morter casinos are run on the state level.
Online gambling advocates are not particularlly happy with today’s decision but have mentioned they will persue legalizing online gambling at a state level. Two states that have been actively looking into legalislation for online gambling have been California and Nevada.
Here are some articles from around the web on the court decision
Wall Street Journal -Reports about the possibility of state legalization.
Wired – Has a link to a pdf with the court decision.