UIGEA implementation one month on

It's been almost a month since the implementation of UIGEA in the US and according to the PPA it has had little real impact on American poker players.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is the self appointed lobby group representing the interests of US poker players in their fight to win the right to lawfully play online poker.

According to PPA director John Pappas, PPA members are having little trouble accessing their chosen online poker rooms since the UIGEA net gambling payment blocking laws came into effect (1 June).

Says Pappas...

"For many Internet poker sites and players, the ill effects of the UIGEA were felt several months ago if not several years. Most sites migrated to other responsible payment systems and the players migrated to that as well...If our members have problems they e-mail us, and we haven't really seen an uptick of complaints from our membership."

UIGIEA's inability to achieve its intended aim of curbing the ability of US players to access real money online gambling options is well documented. Gaming analysts estimate that US residents now spend similar amounts gambling online as they did in 2006 when the law was first introduced.

If the PPA membership base is representative of the broader online gambling picture then it looks like US facing operators and payment processors will continue to thrive.