OK, I was just catching up on my email and found this:

Dear jennifer, I have unfortunate news to report. Despite the efforts of the poker community, the opposition of the banks and the recent news exposing inappropriate influence by the White House, today the current administration finalized the UIGEA regulations to be made effective on January 19th the day before president-elect Obama officially takes office. A copy of the final UIGEA regulations and the PPA’s response can be found on our Web site. I am sure that you share my outrage over this last-minute "midnight rulemaking," but I have not lost my drive to correct this injustice and I call on you to join me and the million strong PPA to help continue our fight. In fact, the Politico Newspaper reports on 11/12 that Congressional leaders are already plotting legislation for next year that will undermine the White House's "midnight" regulations. We must make sure that UIGEA is part of this regulation reversal. There are 4 things you should do to respond to the government's actions: 1. Call your Member of Congress and let him or her know how disappointed you are by the lame duck administration's implementation of UIGEA and subsequent erosion of your personal freedom. 2. Send an email to the Obama Transition team and tell President-elect Obama that once in office he should immediately turn back the UIGEA and other "midnight rules" issued by President Bush. 3. Help the PPA help you. Become a Premium Member of PPA if you are not already. For only $20 you help us be effective advocates for poker and your membership put us in a strong position to defend your rights. If you are already a Premium PPA member please consider making an additional contribution to our fight. 4. Forward this to your friends and stay updated on the latest developments regarding the UIGEA regulations. This is not the time to bow our heads in defeat; rather we must continue our efforts with renewed vigor. Thank you for your support and dedication to protecting the game we love. Proud to play, Alfonse D'Amato, Chairman Poker Players Alliance

White House Gives Banks One Year To Stop Online Gambling Transactions, Despite Protests

from the pushing-through-bad-rules dept

Despite significant questions from other elected officials about the plan, the White House has, in fact, approved new regulations requiring banks to stop any financial transactions dealing with online gambling. They've given banks one year to figure out a way to deal with it -- which hopefully gives Congress enough time to change the law.

The regulations make little sense for a variety of reasons:

1. It's still not clear why online gambling should be made totally illegal, rather than simply regulated, like in many countries.
2. It makes no sense to put the burden and liability on financial institutions to figure out what transactions involve online gambling.
3. It makes even less sense to dump this on banks right now, especially as many are struggling merely to survive in this financial climate. Adding an extra burden of making them figure out if every transaction involves online gambling seems unnecessary (and perhaps unusual).
4. Congress had asked the White House for more time to explore the impact of these regulations, but the White House used a lobbyist to aggressively push for these regulations to be put in place as quickly as possible.

Congress and the new administration will hopefully take up this issue next year, and remove this unnecessary burden from banks before it was set to go into effect.

Wondering what your thoughts are.........Is this the beginning of the end?!?!?