Hopes of Online Poker Legalization Fade

There may come a time when players from the United States can play online poker completely legally but it's not going to happen any time soon. 

 On June 25th the House Financial Services Committee defeated the bill that was submitted by congressman Barney Frank and Ron Paul that would have helped to put online poker on the track to become legalized.

The bill was titled the King Ammendmant and it was meant to free financial institutions from the burden of having to screen transaction that would violate the controversial law that was put into place by the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

It would have also opened up debate on the legality of online poker by forcing lawmakers to compile a complete list of gambling related operations that violate the UIGEA.  At this time there isn't a law that states that online poker is illegal, but a lot of banks are operating under the assumption that is.

The UIGEA legislation did include little loopholes that kept online lotteries, horse racing and fantasy sports in the clear but not poker.  "If you're a bank, how do you decide whether or not to process a transaction?" Frank said to pocketfives.com. "This moderate amendment brought some sense to the UIGEA."