The online gambling industry which is a twelve billion dollar business is set to be completely finished off in the United States. President Bush is waiting to sign The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which was presented to Congress that is holding the multi-billion online gambling industry by a thread. Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, introduced the bill by joining it to the Safe Port Act before Congress took its election recess in November of 2006. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is designed to finish off all online gambling sites by making it illegal for any bank, credit card company or online payment system to process any payments being made to online gambling companies. The new law states that Online Gambling sites are now banned from accepting any type of check, credit card or electronic transfer payments for internet gaming in the US. With this Act ready to be signed, the online gambling business is going chaotic.

The leaders of the online gambling business were shocked at the passing of the law. They took drastic measures in the wake of this event and started to trade off stock on the London Stock Exchange which erased about eight billion from the industry. PartyGaming, the world’s biggest online gambling site said that they would cease their ties with the 920,000 active US customers they currently have only when Bush actually signs the new act.

The online gambling industry has been affected dramatically even though the Act has not been signed yet. PartyGaming’s stocks have dropped a staggering sixty percent ending up at an embarrassing.81 cents a share. Other well known gambling sites like “SportingBet” and “888 Holding” were also hit hard by the change and have since lost a huge sum of money on their shares. “888 Holding,” for example, had a forty eight percent decrease on their shares dropping them down to $1.42 a share on the British Market. In the light of this event, they announced that it would no longer continue its online gambling business in the United States..

This Act is crushingly the online gambling industry ´s economy because the US consumer market is responsible for about fifty to sixty percent of the online gambling revenue. This critical law against the online gambling site owners are forcing there companies to either shut down or move out but what’s clear is that they are no longer welcome in the United States.

It has been predicted by Sue Schneider, the Madam Chairman of the Interactive Gaming Council, that over five hundred companies running around twenty three hundred online gambling sites around the world will be facing extinction and will most likely be wiped out of the industry all together. The few companies that manage to survive through this trying crisis will have to live with a huge cut back on their revenue and have to figure out new ways of reestablishing themselves. One solution has been to open business in the Asian market but only time will tell if that idea works or not. Whatever the case may be, companies have only two hundred and seventy days after the bill is signed to figure out a plan of action before the new Act is enforced.

By Chelsy Wallace
Written by Chelsy Wallace. Find the latest information on Apuestas