Since 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (which is commonly referred to as the UIGEA) has had a huge impact on the landscape of the online gambling industry in the United States.  If you are a regular reader of this site, you have undoubtedly seen multiple posts in the past that have referenced the UIGEA.  Even though we have all been hearing about it for over two years, the UIGEA is in the news again, and this specific story is a very interesting one.

Although President Bush will be out of the White House in just over two months, this isn't stopping the current administration from pushing additional legislation through the government during the remainder of this period of power  The most recent example of the current administration continuing to use its remaining power involves the UIGEA.  Just over a week ago, the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury made the formal decision to put the UIGEA into an official document. 

This newly published document contains all of the procedures and rules that make up the UIGEA.  Like most pieces of legislation, the UIGEA is quite a lengthy document.  In total, the UIGEA is made up of sixty-six pages.  The interesting thing about this specific piece of legislation is that the first fifty pages of the document are used to explain and define many of the terms used in the procedures and rules (which goes to show what a gray area this piece of legislation is trying to control), and then the remaining sixteen pages contain the actual procedures and rules.

While this piece of legislation is not technically in effect yet, it will be as of January 19th of 2009.  The interesting thing about this date is that it is exactly one day before Barack Obama will be sworn in as the newest President of the United States.  Once the piece of legislation becomes active, any party that is involved with the online poker industry (which includes banks, various financial institutions and payment processors) will be expected to update their operations to comply with the procedures and rules.  Every party will be expected to be in compliance no later than December 1st of 2009.