Impending Regulations/Reality Check

[TheEngineer]

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To be sure, the IUGEA ....

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It's called UIGEA.

[BluffTHIS!]

disleckseuh

[JPFisher55]

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The real question here regarding ewallets or offshore banks, is what legal basis does the gov't have to have to blacklist such an entity. To be sure, the IUGEA indemnified the US banks for wrongfully taking actions to block transactions. But if challenged in court, what legal justification does the DoJ have to show to justify a listing? Can they just blacklist any overseas corp which then has to prove it doesn't, or agree not to in the future, faciliate poker and/or other gaming transactions (i.e. guilty until the accused proves itself innocent or pledges to be innocent in the future)? Perhaps Milton or other attorneys could comment on this.

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That is the question that litigation will have to resolve. If, that is, the regulations really require banks to blacklist ewallets or foreign banks dealing with online gambling sites, especially online poker sites.
I think that the DOJ wants to avoid litigation over the legality of online poker because if they lose then their campaign of intimidation by prosecuting sportsbetting is gone. Thus, I think that regs, if any and I am not holding my breath, will be more general, like don't knowingly deal with unlawful online gambling site or business, whatever that means; rather than don't deal with Epassporte, PokerStars or their foreign banks.

[IndyFish]

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In three years, the drought will be over and the US market will again be accessible to the casual player, with US approved brands.

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Does anyone NOT see this happening? Unless the Republicans win back the House and Senate (good luck with that) I think it's just a matter of time until we have legal online poker in the US.

Any thoughts?

By the way, great site CompatiblePoker. I check it every night after work to keep up to date. Thanks for the hard work!

[redbeard]

Regarding epassporte and the impending regulation, would it (epassporte) disappear overnight for U.S. customers or would you think it would continue to opperate during the "public comment period" of the regulations? Obviously the reason I ask this is to determine if i should pull a large portion of my funds off the sites and out of epassporte this week prior to the release of the regulations. Thanks in advance for your thought out opinion on this subject as I'm sure it is a concern a number of 2p2ers are having. I'd especially like to hear the opinions of Milton, Skillgram, Berge, Bluff, Engineer and others who are a little more knowledgeable on the subject than others who like myself are pretty much totally in the dark. For example, my opinion on this would be rank speculation and not worth acting on.

[WichitaDM]

Personally i think epassporte will stick out the comment period unless the regs specifically prohibit them from serving the us poker market.

I think this is because they will not yet be in effect (read enforceable) and as i understand it the comment period is the time that affected parties have to try and change the regs themselves. IE the first set of regs that come out if they ever do, may not be the final version that gets implemented 90 days from then...

Again i am simply an online pro who has been watching this closely, and i may be completely off base

PS - The chances of ePassporte running with your money is very small. They are based here and have other sources of revenue thru porn that makes it almost 100% unlikely you wouldnt see your money from them.

Also the previous poster who stated that ePass may be willing to litigate over this may be very correct. The fact they are being judicious about who they associate with bodes well for the fact that they are in for the long run, rather than just trying to gobble up as much money as they can before the regs come out. If they were in it for the short term i would think they would be proccessing any and all payments knowing that they would simply exit the market when the regs came to pass.

[Legislurker]

I use epass because thats about all thats left thats portable site to site. But, I do not trust them. Look in the zoo, you can see some horror stories, and more I'm sure that arent publicized. I think if they saw it ending, they would just refuse to pay. But, I think they would fight first. On the other hand, I thought Lefebvre would fight for Neteller. The bad thing is Bush is headed into severe lame duckery, and won't give a thought to helping his party retain any seats or win an election. He has sold his soul to Dobson and his 20% and shrinking part of America. If persecuting us to the fullest is asked, he will give DoJ carte blanche.

[JPFisher55]

I use Epassporte and have had very good service from them. I don't especially trust Internet horror stories such as X poker site stole my money without reason (numerous in Zoo) or Epassporte horror stories. It takes some time for them to process EFT's, but they are processed.
I have read some articles (don't remember where)about their founder and his role in the adult porn 1st amendment cases. These articles and their only poker site stance suggest to me that they have had legal advice on the UIGEA and intend to fight if their business is contested.
The problem may be that the regs scare the banks from dealing with Epassporte without any specific prohibition. This makes establishing standing more difficult. The iMEGA case will provide good information on this matter.

[redbeard]

JP, I think your last line regarding the scaring of the banks is my major concern. Could the regs conceivablely come out this week and specifically single out Epassporte since they are one of the main providors of funding for the Big 2 poker sites? Then in turn the banks might be scared from dealing with Epassporte and overnight not accept transfers from Epassporte or allow the usage of the Epassporte card at their ATM machines. Thus "trapping", if you will, my money at Epassporte. Remember overreation by Party Poker and Neteller was unexpected by most of the 2p2 community last year.

I know the easy answer is hey Redbeard if you are that worried just get your money off of there. But if I do that I'm basically down as far as poker playing goes for a while until I can get onto the sites. And that may be some time off as the regulations could conceiveable not come out for a month or more. (Though I trust Berge greatly and would tend to lean toward any comments he has had and those indicated last week that the regs could easily be out in the next week to ten days.)

[sup_bro]

can someone please explain to me, since i dont have vast knowledge in this subject, how PAPER CHECKS and things like Western Union and MONEYGRAM will be affected by the regs. because from what i have heard PAPER CHECKS are not addressed and the way the WESTERN UNIONS of the world operate, it seems near to impossible to trace....i kind of feel like the worst was over from 6-9 mos. ago when the likes of NETELLER and FIREPAY left the market.....like i said i am not the most knowledgeable on the subject but i really fervently feel the worst is behind us....