What's New? - April 2009

The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) reports that the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) announced April 29, 2009 that it has served written notice to 11 national and regional telephone and Internet service providers (ISPs) instructing them to prohibit access of all Minnesota-based computers to nearly 200 online gambling websites, online gambling being illegal in all U.S. states. Read more ..

Read also:

Minnesota Releases Online Gambling “Black List”

In response to appeal filed in US 3rd Circuit October 2008 by iMEGA (Interactive Media & Gaming Association), this US Court of Appeals has notified lawyers for the iMEGA and the US Department of Justice that the Court is set to consider iMEGA’s challenge to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, UIGEA. They were informed that the Case Number 08-1981,iMEGA v. Attorney-General USA, et al, has been tentatively listed on the merits on Monday, July 6 2009, in Philadelphia, PA. Read more ..

EGBA, The European Gaming and Betting Association, stated in a press release that it has contributed its comments to the public consultation on the Nyren report initiated by the Swedish Ministry of Finance into the gambling market in Sweden. The consultation that began after submission of the Nyren report to the Swedish government on 15 December 2008 has expired now.

In its response to the consultation, EGBA clearly evidences that the report is fundamentally flawed as it assumes that the foundations of the current Swedish gaming regulations are in fact compliant with EC law. Read the press release.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) will reintroduce his Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007, first introduced in Congress April 2007, soon after the break in April. However, he has decided to introduce it as a standalone bill, and not as an annex to a must-pass bill, which means it will be much more difficult for his measure to emerge from Congress. The Republicans had added the anti-gambling law, UIGEA, to a vital port security bill in the 109th Congress, and thus got it passed without any discussion on it.

Frank considers it would be “inappropriate” to follow suit. “That is not my intention. It would be a mistake,” Frank told in an interview to The Hill. “I want to do this with hearings, discussions and votes.” Read more ..

Former BetonSports CEO, David Carruthers, who was arrested 2007 in the US while changing plane in connection with the US crackdown on online gaming culminating in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), has pleaded guilty before a US court to a charge of violating Title 18 S. 1962 of the U.S. Code, which call for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to us$ 250,000. However, the parties have agreed that Carruthers is to receive no more than 33 months in jail. Read more ..