Nevada Poker Players Alliance Director Tells Kyl UIGEA is Too Flawed

Nevada director for the Poker Players Alliance, Ken Illgen, lost no time firing back a salvo in response to an article last week in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in which Senator Jon Kyl, chief architect of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), said he is losing patience with the Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury as they struggle to develop regulations to enforce the Internet gambling ban.

"Frankly, the confusion regulators are dealing with as they develop the regulations to enforce the law is a direct result of how this act was written and sneaked into a must-pass port security bill in the dead of night, allowing no time for review and debate," he noted.

Illgen then wrote that one of the most flagrant flaws is that the bill does not clearly define what are "unlawful Internet gambling" transactions, which is something fundamental to a bill to make those transactions illegal.

Referring to the 200 plus comments submitted during the public feedback period last year, and testimony at an April 3 Congressional subcommittee hearing, Illgen added: "This law is clearly unworkable, as regulators, bankers and several members of Nevada's congressional delegation have publicly stated."

Illgen remarked: "To truly place checks and balances on Internet gambling, Congress should look to existing legislation that would seek to regulate online gambling in order to protect children and problem gamblers and collect the billions of dollars in lost tax revenue from these transactions."

"Let's not blame regulators for struggling to enact this flawed and ambiguous bill, and [instead] start looking for workable solutions to truly regulate this growing online industry."

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