Not to get all Chicken Little, but while we\’re a week away from crowning a new WSOP champion semi-live on TV … we\’re three weeks away from at a ticking bomb blowing up in the poker industry.
Dec. 1 is the UIGEA enforcement deadline … and effective, appropriate policy wheels are supposedly in motion in Washington DC to get this theoretical D-day at least moved back. But if we fail, dare I say it, we\’re FUCKED! facing significant new challenges.
Though I don\’t have detailed-details — yo Mitchell, got a copy of the actual letter? — apparently banks are already letting their customers know that they will not be processing certain online gambling transactions, and even mention the UIGEA by name. Or is this just old news to Californians who have already had funds confiscated?
My bank wrote to tell me that they will no longer process these transactions:
\”any wager which involves the use of the Internet, where such bet is unlawful under any applicable Federal or State law in the State or Tribal lands in which the bet or wager is initiated, received or otherwise made.\”
The bank even updated their Deposit Agreement and Disclosure to include the UIGEA.
Again, I\’m hesitant to presumptiously declare the Nagasaki to the UIGEA\’s Hiroshima … but yeah … bing bang boom!