Update on Online Gambling Legislation

In the late hours of Friday, Sept. 29th, the U.S. Congress pulled a slick backdoor maneuver bypassing normal due process and passed legislation that will prohibit US financial institutions from facilitating online gambling transactions. House and Senate Republicans hastily attached the legislation to the Port Security Bill, which is considered 'must pass', and virtually eliminated opportunity to oppose. Once this legislation is signed by the president, regulators and financial institutions will be given 270 days to devise and implement new rules to apply this new regulation.

This legislation is directed at the financial institutions, NOT the individual operators or website patrons. This legislation does not make it illegal for you to fund an online gambling account or to play bingo online. Click here for more analysis of the bill.

The bill has yet to be signed into law by the president, but is virtually certain to be so. Most institutions, including ours, are waiting to see how this new regulation will affect the industry. This will happen over the 270 implementation period mentioned above. Rest assured we are committed to providing solutions that will enable you to continue to play bingo online. We have every intention of ensuring your continued enjoyment of our online community and games for years to come.

As a fully licensed and regulated gaming company, located and operated entirely in Costa Rica, we comply fully with the laws and consider online gambling to be legal under international law.

In the months to come, as further information and guidelines are made available to financial institutions, we will have a clearer picture of what payment options will be available to you in the future.

What can you do?

1) Vote on November 7th. Contact your Federal and State level legislators (House and Senate) and urge them to safeguard personal freedoms and your right to play bingo online. It is important that you elect representatives that you feel will best represent your interests in the House and Senate. Possibly one of the primary reasons why this bill was passed is because the affected people don't vote.

2) Write your legislators. Let them know what you think of them passing this legislation.

Click here for Senate.
Click here for House of Reps.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Andrew@worldwidevegas.com.