Quantcast

Play Online Poker

Why ACH Went Away

by Bill Rini on January 24, 2007

in Is Online Poker Rigged?,Online Poker,Poker,Poker News

As I’ve posted in the past, taking away EFT and ACH from the online gaming world is not difficult. In fact, it turns out that it’s a lot easier than even I thought it would be. Last week NACHA, which helps create rules for ACH providers and networks, published the following letter to its members.

OPERATIONS BULLETIN

INTERNET GAMBLING TRANSACTIONS

Through this Operations Bulletin, NACHA calls attention to current laws and forthcoming regulations that may affect the ACH Network.

On October 13, 2006, the President signed into law the SAFE Port Act1 which, among other things, contained the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (“Internet Gambling Act”). The Internet Gambling Act specifically prohibits some, but not all, kinds of Internet gambling. In addition, it requires the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve, in consultation with the Department of Justice, to prescribe regulations to require that designated payment systems and their respective participants identify and block payments for illegal Internet gambling transactions. The agencies must issue these regulations within 270 days of the law’s enactment, which is on or around July 9, 2007.

Although NACHA is working with the agencies to determine how the new regulations will affect the ACH Network, NACHA understands that the Department of Justice believes that existing federal law prohibits many Internet gambling transactions and that in many cases the Internet Gambling Act merely restates the current law. For example, a court has ruled that a sports betting Internet gambling site violated the Wire Act and enjoined processing payments for that site.2 However, the full scope of any existing prohibition against Internet gambling, and the processing of payments for Internet gambling sites, under federal law is unclear and has not been fully tested in the courts.

Financial institutions should be aware that Internet gambling operations may be contrary to existing federal or state law. Knowingly originating or processing ACH entries on behalf of companies that are directly involved in, or companies that facilitate, illegal Internet gambling involves legal risk for ODFIs and merchant processors.

NACHA reminds financial institutions that (i) they should know their customers and (ii) they should not be originating for companies doing illegal business. Also, in the case of financial institutions processing entries that are received through a third-party service provider, the financial institutions should know their customer’s customer.

* * *

If you have any questions concerning this Operations Bulletin, please contact the Network Rules Department at NACHA at (703) 561-1100.

So, in essence, this was a completely voluntary move by ACH providers to choke off money going to online gaming sites. They didn’t even need to code their transactions because they knew who the violators were and they just turned them off completely.

Related posts:

  1. Scathing Review of Senator Jon Kyl It’s not often that you see a conservative website rip...
  2. American Gaming Association Follows Bill’s Poker Blog Strategy Pokerati posted recently regarding rumors that Senate Majority Leader Harry...
  3. Harrah’s Goes with 888 for Poker Platform I know a lot of people assumed that with former...
  4. UB/Absolute Wishy-Washy Multi-Account Policy Just the other week UltimateBet and Absolute seemed to crack...
  5. Will the Economic Recovery Boost Online Poker? During the downturn that followed the banking collapse in the...

Play Online Poker


Rakeback Report Promotions

We are pleased to offer all of the following promotions this month at Rakeback Report. Simply sign up for a valid account at a participating poker room and you will automatically be enrolled.

September Promotions
Site Rake Race Rake Chase Points Race Freeroll
Cake Poker $60,000      
Doyle's Room $50,000      
Cereus Poker Network* $60,000     $15,000
Red Star Poker   $23,000    
Party Poker       $20,000
GR88 Poker   $20,000    
Players Only   $16,400    
Minted Poker   $14,050    
Full Tilt Poker $10,000     $5,000
Betfair Poker $5,000      
Victory Poker   $10,450    
Carbon Poker   $10,000    
Power Poker   $10,000    
Eurobet**     $10,000  
Tower Gaming**     $10,000  
NoIQ Poker €8,000      
Boss Media Network*** $5,000      
Winner Poker   $5,000    

* Includes Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet.
** Includes Eurobet and Tower Gaming. May not be available to all users. Contact Us to request this offer or for more information.
***Includes Poker Heaven, Fortune Poker, InterPoker and Paradise Poker.

{ 1 trackback }

Gene Bromberg » Blog Archive » Listen to the Man
06.19.07 at 4:53 pm

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Haley 01.25.07 at 11:37 am

15!! 6+9=15, dammit!!

Actually, this is good work… it clarifies why some NETeller transactions on Jan. 16th went back to “pending” after previously having been listed as “accepted.”

Leave a Comment

You can use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title="" rel=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <card> <code> <em> <i> <span class=""> <strike> <strong>

Previous post:

Next post: