Online poker players in the United States are feeling the UIGEA noose further tighten around their necks as the federal government continues to crack down on violators of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was passed in 2006 as an attachment to the Safe Ports Act. US poker players weren’t fully aware of the law’s implications –or how harshly the government would enforce the measure—until it was fully enacted in June 2010.

Since full implementation of UIGEA regulations online poker players have seen their deposit and withdrawal options shrivel-up, and the latest victim appears to be one of the most popular deposit methods, eWalletXpress.

The popular deposit option for many US poker players –as well as Canadian—has officially stopped serving the US market. The saga began on November 12th when players were unable to access their eWalletXpress accounts. At first the company referred to the situation as “technical issues” but a week later merchants received the following message from eWalletsXpress: “We regret to inform you that we are no longer able to continue service at this time due to a federal warrant issued to seize our funds.”

eWalletsXpress has subsequently removed the USA option from their website and is now only serving Canada.

The poker world is hoping we are not witness a repeat of the Neteller fiasco that occurred in 2007 after UIGEA legislation was initially passed. Neteller had some $55 million seized by the Department of Justice, and many Neteller customers waited upwards of a year to receive their funds from the company as Neteller tried to settle and comply with the DOJ –finally paying a fine and having the funds released back to them.

Tags: eWalletXpress, Neteller, poker players in the United States, uigea, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 5:40 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.