American Online Gamers
Recently, for around two years, American gamers have experienced some technical turbulence with online casino games. Some of these do not accept U.S.-based players, while the others which do accept them, give the players a hard time transferring their funds.
This online disparity that American players endure started when former President George Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) on October 13, 2006. Aimed at improving the security of the United States ports, the UIGEA (the title VIII) was codified pof tinder into law under the SAFE Port Act. It prohibits the transfer of money to online gambling websites from banks and other financial establishments. However, there are still exceptions to this law, which include horse or harness racing, fantasy sports and online lotteries.
When the said act was passed and enforced through the law, many sites that traded publicly and were listed on the London Stock Exchange stopped accepting American online gamers. Although some small-scale and non-public companies still continued accepting U.S. players, a number of companies’ share prices decreased immensely due to this unfortunate major setback.
Because of this, much negative feedback and an overwhelming frustration came from the online gambling community. Increasing distressing issues remained vague and subjected to personal interpretation – or in a better term, misinterpretation – thereby, causing many to be paranoid, while others uncaring.
Non-U.S.-based casino operators seem to be legal. However, those who are operating within the American borders are labeled to be against the law. In a brighter light, players who play online casino games should not have problems unless the state where they belong to explicitly forbids it in their federal law. Some of these states that forbid online gambling are Nevada, Florida, California and Texas.
As the number of sites that still accept them and assists them in transferring or depositing funds becomes less and less, United States gamers have to be more careful compared to other non-U.S. players when they choose an online casino or a particular online casino game. It is therefore advisable to choose a well-renowned online casino site that publicly claims they do accept U.S. gamers.
The implementation of the UIGEA has resulted to the illegalization of some deposit options like NeTeller and credit cards. As an outcome, customers have experienced much difficulty in making deposits and the like.
However, there are still some e-wallet solutions, which serve American players. These enable them to transfer their money in and out of their e-wallet accounts and make deposits to the targeted casinos. Currently, there is a stable flow of new e-wallet solutions.
Fund deposit options to online casinos often vary in different situations and conditions. These changes and updates (perhaps in new payment functions and methods) are made known to the American players via e-mail notifications.
Using credit cards to pay the online casinos is the most convenient way to transfer funds. Much to many people’s amazement, a lot of casinos that entertain U.S. gamers are still accepting credit cards and experience no such troubles in accomplishing necessary transactions. But still keep in mind that deposit transfers and other transactions have still to be processed and will not register until it has actually confirmed success.
There are still some players who actually go to their banks and send a wire transfer to their casino, however, there is a more efficient and convenient way available now. Today, you may opt to use prepaid phonecards and use them as a credit card to deposit your funds.
While this constant struggle still strives for the operators, there is hope that the UIGEA and other laws will be amended or changed.