FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS

In reality it is difficult to police laws preventing global commerce. What the United States Senate made illegal in the USA was still perfectly legal in foreign jurisdictions.

For the top bosses and board members of the igaming industry it was an executive decision whether or not to pull out of the US since the UIGEA did not prohibit the offering of online casinos and online poker in itself.

 

Close to 50% of the operators representing the majority of the total market share decided to pull out of the US. Common to these businesses were that they were publicly traded and therefore had no other choice than to protect their shareholders or they simply did not have any significant market share in the US making it unnecessary to take any risks.

 

Poker rooms still accepting US players today have all found processors willing to handle the high risk transactions that online gambling transactions have been classified as. Very few people know how these companies manage to work around the Treasury's and the Federal Reserve Board's blocking of transactions. These companies and their employees all risk a future in a prison cell if the US Department of Justice and the FBI prove that they did something illegal and manage to catch them on American soil.

 

Poker rooms and casinos violating the UIGEA or ‘aiding in a betting’ to use a legal term might only get fined for being involved in such activities while processors who are intentionally tricking banks into processing gambling transactions are almost guaranteed to face prison time and enormous fines.