US congressman launches new challenge to UIGEA

Hope that UK online bingo operators could once again enjoy access to the lucrative US online gaming market received a boost recently with the introduction of Democrat Congressman Jim McDermott's Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (IGRTEA) proposal.

In a direct challenge to the existing Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), IGRTEA is designed to support Barney Frank's IGREA initiative by making sure online gaming taxes are collected from Internet gambling activities within a regulated environment.

Over the next ten years it's expected that regulated online gaming could generate revenue of between $8.7 billion and $42.8 billion.  Non-US online bingo halls and online bingo games providers are currently restricted from operating in the US market due to the current UIGEA legislation.

"To be clear, these are not mostly new taxes - the bulk of the revenues generated would come from taxes required under existing law," said McDermott in a letter to Congress members. "This is simply a framework to collect taxes on existing activity that is currently unregulated, unsupervised, and underground."

Along with other online gaming sectors, the bingo online industry was badly hit by the implementation of UIGEA which disrupts financial transactions between operators and US customers.