Those players are being surprised with emails which inform them that the act does include those prepaid cards. This means those players now have to look even further for ways to deposit their funds into their accounts.

One more surprise for many players is that even gift cards have been targeted and are no good for depositing funds onto a gambling site.

There is a little hope which comes in the form of a very popular company in the UK that has decided to make online casino deposits a little easier for online players.

This company is offering a prepaid card to residents in the UK that is called MyPokerCard and it can be reloaded at the post office.

Many players in the US are hoping that the company will bring the card to them soon and this would mean they would be able to easily fund their accounts once more.

Not only is the MyPokerCard simple for players to reload, it also protects a player’s bank account information since it is not tied to their banking account on any way.

Even if MyPokerCard doesn’t make it to the US, some company is sure to come up with a solution.

Land based casinos have been seeing a steady decline of the number of visitors they are receiving over the past ten years. However, online casinos continue to flourish and gain more popularity each day.

The UIGEA has done its best to ensure Americans aren’t able to enjoy online gambling, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping them much. It has made it a bit more difficult for players, as well as those that made a living by providing those services. However, it is as the old saying goes, Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Even though these measures were taken to prevent Americans from taking part in online gambling, 12% of respondents claimed that they have visited an online casino during the last year.

Men have been show to be more likely to play poker, or other games on an online casino. However, many online casinos have been doing a great job of designing their sites in a way which entices the women to join in on the fun.

The decline of visitors has been a steady one, yet it has also been gradual. It is highly likely that the economy and the great advancements in online poker have worked together to cause this decline. People are finding it more difficult to travel to casinos due to financial hardships and looking for more convenient ways to gamble; online casinos offer them this.

With so much on the plates of the US congress, the bill to regulate online gambling seems to have been pushed to the back burner.

This slow pace has led many experts to speculate that online gaming may arrive to the states in a series of interstate laws, instead of through an entire national reform.

This is already being seen in New Jersey. State lawmakers in New Jersey have already started considering a bill that would allow casinos in Atlantic City to operate Internet gambling which would serve residents within the states border.

California is another state which has also attempted to put similar bills before its legislature, but the tribal casinos influence has stopped the passage so far.

Speculators suspect that if New Jersey were to actually get this bill passed, you would soon see other states following suit. It looks good so far when it comes to New Jersey getting legalization within about a year.

Other states have already begun showing interest in the idea of considering a gambling extension which would benefit the state.

There are many Internet casino companies looking to base US operations as business to business, or to even set up software that would adapt easily to the various laws and regulations.

This may be one more step forward for online gambling and there are plenty of people out there with their fingers crossed.

UC Group Ltd has launched a subsidiary for operations in the United States, Secure Trading. Along with this, the company released a statement to let interested parties know that they plan to offer “safe financial transactions and required consumer protections,” in anticipation of the expected federal legislation in the US.

The move has come at a time when US online casino players are somewhat frustrated over the developments that are taking place with the successful blockage of both MasterCard and Visa credit cards from processing online gambling transactions.

Chris Thom is Secure Trading’s chairman. He was employed by MasterCard for 11 years, and was the chief risk officer at the large credit card company. Ted Friedman is the Chief Operating Officer. Friedman was previously employed at Europay International in Belguim, and at MasterCard in New York. The head of customer sales and support at Secure Trading is T.J. Sharkey. Sharkey had worked at MasterCard for 17 years, and more recently held the position of group head of Global Merchants and Acquirers.

Chris Thom said, “Momentum for regulating Internet gambling in the US has been building for some time now.” He continued to note: “As Congress prepares to take the final step, Secure Trading Inc.’s turnkey system is primed to enable our customers to go live the moment Internet gambling is regulated.”

Although the terms of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) do state that financial institutions need to block online gambling transactions, the act has not yet reached the point of implementation, and is in fact delayed until the middle of this year, in June 2010.

Mastercard recently managed to block online casino transactions, and now, following closely behind them, VISA has also managed to block online gambling transactions. In the past, the credit card companies had trouble identifying online gambling money transfers, since the coding used by the online gambling operators may have been coded for other forms of e-commerce. The credit card companies have managed to find a way to get around this, and have now worked out how to block online gambling transactions.

There have been reports from some players that they are still able to use their Visa credit cards, however, news reports have stated that Visa’s credit card transactions seem to be blocked for many of the online gambling sites.

The Internet Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, authored by Congressman Barney Frank, may well be voted into law, and will cause the UIGEA to be abolished. Should this happen, the credit card companies, and other banking institutions, that wish to process online gambling financial transactions, will have no legal problem doing so. At this time, the current law is quite unclear.

MasterCard has decided that they are going to block any and all poker transactions from players located in the US.

It is suspected that this move by MasterCard is more than likely due to UIGEA legislation which will be enacted in June. However, there is a chance that the government may overturn the legislation before June.

This is not the first time that MasterCard has taken an action like this. Online poker sites started changing their codes in order to take MasterCard payments the first time.

Since this second action, many of the online poker sites have gone ahead and removed the MasterCard name from the deposit method sections of their sites.

Many online poker players have been having difficulty adding their deposits with the use of their plastic anyway. This was due partially to the fact that many banks also have a policy in place to block the transactions between players and online poker sites.

Now that MasterCard has decided to block these transactions, all transactions will be blocked regardless of the banks policies regarding online gambling.

This is one more major hit being thrown at online poker players and online poker sites. Online poker players can only find themselves hoping that these blows will come to an end soon. In the mean time, there are still ways for US players to deposit their funds onto their online poker sites, just not through MasterCard.

The purchase comes with the objective to boost Intralot’s online offerings, with the option of taking hold of up to 51% of CyberArts in the future. While based in the United States, CyberArts at present only offers its services to players in Europe such as Italy and France, so as not to go against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that was passed in 2006.

Intralot is no stranger to expansion and international business. The group reported an annual revenue of over $1 billion and provides products and services to lotteries and betting operations in over 50 countries around the world. However, Intralot knows that once changes come to the US market, this will be one of the most lucrative industries around and it is worth investing when competition is still not too stiff.

Intralot already has a foot in the door as the Athens trading group provides services to the Arkansas state lottery, and is negotiating with other states to offer them gambling services as well.

Initial discussions will center around overturning the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). The date on which the discussions will begin is Thursday, 3rd December 2009. Although these discussions are just the beginning of what is likely to be a long process, at least it is a beginning. At this time, there are not likely to be any major changes that will take place from the initial discussions, however, these talks will pave the way to future changes.

With the 1st December deadline for the implementation of the UIGEA looming just a few days before the online gambling bills will now start their way through the legal process, it is difficult to tell which way certain issues will go. There is much speculation that the Treasury will now delay the implementation of the UIGEA, even if only for a short time, now that the gambling bills are beginning their process.

Should the Treasury agree to delay the UIGEA implementation to sometime after the new year begins, Barney Frank and the other Congressmen who are opposed to online gambling may well have a chance to have the gambling bills passed into law before the UIGEA is officially implemented.

A delay requested by Barney Frank and a number of other Congressmen has not yet been granted, and may well not be granted at this late date. The delay was requested in order to give Congress the necessary time to debate the online gambling bills, which include anti-UIGEA legislation. These bills were delayed because important issues such as the economic situation and the health care bill took precedence. Many have acknowledged that much-needed funds can be raised from the legalization of online gambling, which could be used toward healthcare.

President Obama espoused Internet freedom during his presidential campaign, although he has not mentioned it in the US since he was sworn in as President of the United States. He has, however, told the Chinese that they should allow Internet freedom in their country. China banned online casinos and other Internet sites a few months ago.

The prevalent feeling at this time is that the online gambling bills will be accepted after they are debated, however, it is still unclear when they will be heard in Congress. Should the online gambling bills be accepted, the current act concerning online gambling, the UIGEA, will simply become moot. It will, however, be easier to deal with if it has not officially been implemented, and therefore does not actually need to be overturned.

Zicarelli did not want to testify in the case against the online gambling operators, and therefore chose to plead the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment does not allow people to give evidence that could incriminate themselves. The judge, however, chose to give Zicarelli immunity from prosecution in the case, thereby removing his option to plead the Fifth, and instructed him to answer the questions put to him.

Zicarelli’s lawyer said “He’s a law-abiding citizen who doesn’t want to be dragged into this investigation.”

Judge Greg Kays informed Zicarelli that if he did not give testimony, he would be held in contempt of court, with either a jail sentence of 18 months, or he would have to agree to testify in front of a grand jury. Zicarelli still refused to testify, and will only be released from jail before the 18 months are up if he decides to testify in front of a grand jury.

It seems that Zicarelli is not the first random online gambler to be in this situation. Three other online gamblers, who had also refused to testify, were jailed after being held in contempt of court in August. Zicarelli’s case has been in the public eye because, unlike the other three victims, he chose to have an open hearing for his case.

One does wonder what the future holds when it comes to legalizing and regulating online gambling.