In 1996 we had an explosion of online casinosthat swept thru the whole world. The United States saw an incredible increase in both online casinos and players. This surge of internet players worried the land-based casino owners and they lobbied to get it stopped or at best slowed down. They recognized if this pace continued they could see a lot more of a loss of profits. So they lobbied Congress hard and in 2006 The USA passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (or UIGEA).
The UIGEA act prohibited all the banks and payment processors from processing any type of transactions in connection with internet gambling. This created a problem for players in depositing and withdrawing funds from their internet accounts. While the companies continued to operate they had to use payment processors that could get around such restrictions. Despite all of these laws related to online gambling, some internet casinos continued to take gamblers in the USA. On the other hand, most of the bigger internet brands left the USA market, the options for players became incredibly limited. Many said it was very hard to find a good online casino. Alot of ratings sites began to show up that directed players to the sites they so desperately looked for. Some of the sites were better than others, nevertheless they served the need that was created. Shortly after the industry started to stabilize and players were playing online again, Black Friday hit the internet gambling world.
Numerous casinos had found a way around the deposit and withdrawal problems and the internet gambling world was growing once again. Many started to feel invincible to this new law. The federal government was not really enforcing it and it appeared like they had no intentions starting. This was certainly a false sense of security for both the gamblers and internet casinos. April 15, 2011, will go down in history as the day the internet gambling sector was punished and punished hard. It was the beginning of a new era. The United States Department of Justice charged the owners of the three largest poker rooms Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker with bank fraud, illegal gambling offenses, and laundering billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds. The DOJ seized their internet addresses along with their funds. Unexpectedly many US gamblers were not just left with nowhere to play and no way to recuperate their funds.
Black Friday forced more gambling brands to leave the USA Market. Everybody was once more scrambling to find new places to gamble, worried when they would ever get their money back, and wondering if anybody was going to stay in the United States market. A major blow was struck to online gambling and many wondered if it would survive. Again the review sites played a significant role in finding places for players to play. Now the market was very limited and it was a struggle to find online sites. Once again the market slowly started to stabilize and things settled down a bit. The market was damaged but survived.
The other major event was Gray Monday. Grey Monday saw more domains and gambling operations seized. There was clearly two main differences with these seizures. This time both small and big sites were seized. Many different sectors in the industry were seized including online poker, casinos, sports books as well as bingo. Basically no one was safe now. Now the size of the company did not matter anymore. Nor did the industry you're in. This round of seizures was experienced by everyone throughout the gambling industry.
The full effects of this seizure haven't been felt yet but there is now even less US Casino Sites available. Will the industry survive? It remains to be seen but it's been hit hard.
The UIGEA act prohibited all the banks and payment processors from processing any type of transactions in connection with internet gambling. This created a problem for players in depositing and withdrawing funds from their internet accounts. While the companies continued to operate they had to use payment processors that could get around such restrictions. Despite all of these laws related to online gambling, some internet casinos continued to take gamblers in the USA. On the other hand, most of the bigger internet brands left the USA market, the options for players became incredibly limited. Many said it was very hard to find a good online casino. Alot of ratings sites began to show up that directed players to the sites they so desperately looked for. Some of the sites were better than others, nevertheless they served the need that was created. Shortly after the industry started to stabilize and players were playing online again, Black Friday hit the internet gambling world.
Numerous casinos had found a way around the deposit and withdrawal problems and the internet gambling world was growing once again. Many started to feel invincible to this new law. The federal government was not really enforcing it and it appeared like they had no intentions starting. This was certainly a false sense of security for both the gamblers and internet casinos. April 15, 2011, will go down in history as the day the internet gambling sector was punished and punished hard. It was the beginning of a new era. The United States Department of Justice charged the owners of the three largest poker rooms Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker with bank fraud, illegal gambling offenses, and laundering billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds. The DOJ seized their internet addresses along with their funds. Unexpectedly many US gamblers were not just left with nowhere to play and no way to recuperate their funds.
Black Friday forced more gambling brands to leave the USA Market. Everybody was once more scrambling to find new places to gamble, worried when they would ever get their money back, and wondering if anybody was going to stay in the United States market. A major blow was struck to online gambling and many wondered if it would survive. Again the review sites played a significant role in finding places for players to play. Now the market was very limited and it was a struggle to find online sites. Once again the market slowly started to stabilize and things settled down a bit. The market was damaged but survived.
The other major event was Gray Monday. Grey Monday saw more domains and gambling operations seized. There was clearly two main differences with these seizures. This time both small and big sites were seized. Many different sectors in the industry were seized including online poker, casinos, sports books as well as bingo. Basically no one was safe now. Now the size of the company did not matter anymore. Nor did the industry you're in. This round of seizures was experienced by everyone throughout the gambling industry.
The full effects of this seizure haven't been felt yet but there is now even less US Casino Sites available. Will the industry survive? It remains to be seen but it's been hit hard.
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