Recently, the Midnight Rule Act (HR 34), introduced by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has gained support in the congress. The Act, which is viewed by many online poker players as the quickest and easiest way to overturn the UIGEA regulations, was originally introduced to open the 2009 calendar year, the Midnight Rule Act will basically give the new administration the possibility to evaluate bills, laws and amendments passed during the last 3 months of the outgoing administration. As most online poker players know, the UIGEA regulations were formally adopted in November and implemented on January 19th, only one day before President Obama took charge of the White House, which puts them in the list of rules that could be reviewed under the new Act.

 

According to the act, only rules adopted in the final 90 days of a Presidency can be reviewed. However, the HR 34 has several exceptions, for example, rules considered "necessary because of an imminent threat to health or safety or other emergency" and midnight regulations that help the authorities to put into effect criminal laws cannot be reviewed or challenged; in addition, rules that are "pursuant to any statute implementing an international trade agreement" are also exempted from any challenges. In addition, the President can also issue an Executive Order to exempt regulations from this rule.

 

The UIGEA regulations call for full compliance from the financial services industry by December 1st. But since there’s an endless debate on how the rules should be interpreted, the regulations have become a nightmare for some state lotteries in states in where residents can buy tickets online due the frequent problems with the credit card companies and banks. Since the rules were passed, many experts warned the government about the imprecision and ambiguity of the UIGEA, arguing that credit card companies and banks don’t have the time or the legal criteria to detect charges related to online gaming sites and that they will simply reject any transaction they consider suspicious. In addition, the

 

The Midnight Rule Act already counts with three co-sponsors: Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Pete Stark (D-CA). But even if the HR 34 is passed, no one can predict if the Congress will include the UIGEA regulations for revision. Although, groups and individuals supporting the legalization of online gambling still have some other ways to overturn the UIGEA, in a recent interview given to the media, Barney Frank (D-Mass), Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, said that he is determined to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, adding that he’s willing to do what ever it takes to amend the law. Frank comments come only a few days after Pricewaterhouse Coopers released a study showing that about $52 billion could be generated from taxing and regulating the online gambling industry in the next decade if the Government regulates and taxes online poker and Internet gambling instead of trying to block it.