Microgaming Internet Casinos Block US Residents

[OGGS]

Following President Bush signing the Port Security Act into law on Friday October 13th 2006, an amendment to which was the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act" (no, we didn't get that either!), Internet casino software provider Microgaming http://www.microgaming.com has issued instructions to it's licencees that it will no longer allow players from US States which strictly prohibit Internet gambling to sign up. The States included in this initiative are Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, Louisiana, South Dakota and two States that do not yet ban online gambling, New Youk and New Jersey.

 

This follows on from an outright USA residents ban imposed by Wagerlogic http://www.wagerlogic.com a software company subsiduary of Cryptologic providing online casino and poker network software to a number of popular Internet casinos. Playtech http://www.playtech.com, another publically listed casino software company, are also advising their licencees that banning US players would be the right thing. At this juncture, a few Playtech licencees continue to accept residents from the USA.

 

Dubbed, "Prohibition 2", the new Act stops short of prohibiting online gambling across the entire US, instead preferring to make it illegal for US banks and financial institutions to allow transactions to online casinos and poker rooms by it's customers. The Act is a subset of the Bill "HR4411", in itself an amalgamation of two Bills (HR4777 and HR4411) that are set to explicitly ban any US resident from wagering online, exempting horse racing and lotteries. Civil Rights groups have clearly been upset by this infringement on America's proud tradition of Freedom Of Choice, and it is yet to be seen how the fallout will affect the industry and the impact it has on the success of HR4411. The latter Bill was passed by The House Of Representatives in August and is due before the Senate at an undisclosed date.

 

A short, enlightening and very entertaining video on the subject of the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act" has been released by the APCW http://www.apcw.org and can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U8WjAmhgsU.