Monthly Archives: October 2006

Online gambling in the United States, The Online Casino Gambling Directory

Update to Gaming Sites Policy on Wagers From US

Nearly two weeks have passed since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) was signed, and here’s where the sites that are listed at The Online Casino Gambling Directory stand with respect to US-based real-money players:

  • 76% of all sites have published or otherwise verified their policy
  • Of those sites that have published or otherwise verified their policy, 32% have exited the US market
  • Of the remaining 68% that remain in the US market, a full 52% continue to accept US-based real-money players from all states, while the remaining 16% accept US-based real-money players that do not reside in states that have specific online gaming bans on the law books (IL, IN, LA, MI, NJ, NV, NY, OR, SD, WA, WI).

While the UIGEA has certainly limited the number of online gaming options available to US citizens, it has not even come close to eliminating all options. As of this writing, US-based real-money players from all states can still choose from:

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Online gambling in the United States, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006

Gaming Sites Policy on Wagers From US

Immediately after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (links to large PDF), I contacted the more than 550 gaming sites that are listed at The Online Casino Gambling Directory regarding their policy on US-based real-money wagering. Here are the results thus far:

  • 63% of the gaming sites have published an official policy.
  • Of those that have published an official policy, 27% have stated that they will no longer accept US-based real-money wagering, while the remaining 73% have stated that they will continue to accept US-based real-money wagering. (Some of the 73% accept US-based real-money wagering from only certain states — I’ll have a breakdown soon, so keep an eye here for that data).

Here are the lists if you are interested:

[Note: The links above are dynamically generated and will change over time, so keep that in mind if you click on them more than a day or two after I published this blog entry.]

I have published each gaming site’s policy at The Online Casino Gambling Directory; just click the US flag graphic to the right of each site’s name in the Search Results List.

The Act is due to be signed today. I have noticed that a number of sites have switched their policy from “business as usual” when the Act was passed to “no US-based real-money wagering” now that the Act is about to be signed into law. Kinda like they checked, were raised, and now folded.

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Firepay, Online gambling in the United States, The Online Casino Gambling Directory

Firepay Exits Online Gaming in US

Yesterday, Firepay announced that they will decline purchases at gaming sites from US players starting with the day that Bush signs the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006″. Furthermore, ten days following the signing of the Act, they wll decline any transfer from gaming sites to US-based Firepay accounts.

My advice is to withdraw all funds from all gaming sites for which you used Firepay to make your most recent deposit — since gaming sites generally refund back to the deposit source before any other source (such as Neteller). Once all of the withdrawals appear in your Firepay account, withdraw the funds from the Firepay account to your banking account; you should try to make only a single withdrawal since Firepay charges a $10 fee for withdrawals.

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