In America, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) has filed a response brief with the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals in its action questioning the Constitutionality of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
This is the latest step in the non-profit group’s suit, iMEGA v Keisler, against UIGEA and follows last week’s retort from the US Department of Justice that the legislation was ‘perfectly clear’. The legal action is targeting the US Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission and seeks to have the law overturned by the Philadelphia-based Court on Constitutional grounds.
The filing came one day after the US Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System published the final regulations for UIGEA requiring all US banks, credit card companies and electronic payment processors to refuse all ‘unlawful Internet gambling’ transactions.
The brief answered that from the Government and refuted their arguments point-by-point including a claim that officials are wrong to deny a person from gambling online in their own home. iMEGA claims that this violates Constitutional privacy protection even when such activities are indeed private, consensual and legal under UIGEA.
iMEGA will now wait to hear if and when a three-judge panel will hear oral arguments from both parties but the Washington, DC-based lobby group stated that it is confident of prevailing.
“After reviewing the final regulations, we’re extremely confident the Court will look at this law and agree that UIGEA should be ‘void for vagueness’,” said Joe Brennan, Chairman for iMEGA.
“Regulators and Congress have refused to even define what ‘unlawful internet gambling’ is and, if you cannot even answer that basic question, how exactly are banks supposed to do it?
“We have a powerful argument that the Government will find very hard to dispute.”
Abstract from www.igamingbusiness.com
