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United
States
On 30 September 2006,
the United States Congress passed The Safe Port Act.
That measure also contained certain provisions known as the
'Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006'
that will affect the processing of payments between US customers
and online gaming companies, that are publicly traded and licensed
and regulated in respected jurisdictions.
President Bush signed
the Act into law on 13 October 2006, immediately making unlawful
the receipt by a gambling business of proceeds or monies in
connection with unlawful internet gambling. The Act does not
clarify the definition of unlawful gambling. However, as the
first piece of Federal legislation dealing explicitly with internet
gaming, it does make clear that the US government intends to
stop the flow of funds from Americans to online gaming operators
through criminal sanction.
PartyGaming
Plc (Click
Here to Read Press Release from PartyGaming)
After taking extensive
legal advice, the Board of PartyGaming Plc concluded that the
new legislation makes it practically impossible to provide US
residents with access to its real money poker and their other
real money gaming sites. As a result of this, the company has
suspended all real money gaming business with US residents,
and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification
of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact
on financial institutions of this and other related legislation.
Access to PartyGaming's online gaming sites for the Group's
US free play customers and non-US real money and free play customers
is unaffected. The Party Gaming sites that will no longer be
accepting US Players include: Planetluck Casino, Starluck Casino,
PartyCasino, and also PartyPoker, Empire Poker, PartyGammon
and PartyBingo.
888.com,
Casino-On-Net, and Pacific Poker are among the sites that
are not accepting US players.
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