The US government has been trying its best to bring about an anti-gambling legislation ever since the 90’s. However much of their attempts have been unsuccessful due to the simple fact producing a well defined anti-gambling act and enforcing it would be a mammoth task. However after debate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed in the year 2006. The Act was passed in the US congress and was signed by the then president George W. Bush in an attempt to stop online gambling by barring US banks, card companies and such financial institutions from facilitating transactions made between online casino website operated from offshore and gamblers located in America.

However this act has been highly ambiguous. The Act does not actually ban online gambling and does not speak of it being illegal to participate in online gambling to individuals. It has only prohibited the transfer of funds and deemed it illegal fro banks and credit card companies to undertake such transfer of funds between gamblers and online casinos.

The Act is being enforced rather poorly in the United States and does not offer clear guidelines in what types of activities are legal or illegal gambling. This Act has also caused a great deal of confusion for the financial institutions on which the act was enforced. Banks are left hanging without a being clear on what sort of system they must employ - either block all transactions that resemble gambling or pick and choose in a non-uniform manner. Several financial institutions in the US claimed that complying with the provisions of the UIGEA presented an arduous task making their payment processing system unworkable.

Recently European Union Officials condemned the UIGEA for breaching free trade agreements in places between the US and Euro zone. Also Antigua in Barbuda won the World Trade Organization ruling that found the criminalizing of Online betting by the US legislation was a violation of the commercial services accords.

What must be done is to find mean to legalize and regulate online gambling in the US and many people are fighting for this. The fact however remains that US players are actively online gambling and the online gambling industry is growing into a multi-billion dollar industry. There are several online casinos that accept US players and offer them safe and reliable options to make fun transfers to and from their online casino accounts.