Any online poker player and online casino aficionado knows or at list have heard about the UIGEA and how it has created a black hole in the online gambling industry. Almost two years have passed since the bill’s introduction and even when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has failed to prevent U.S players from gambling, the internet gaming profits from online casinos, online sports betting, and online poker dropped dramatically since 2006. The bill also started a legal confrontation between the U.S and some of the countries affected by the UIGEA, the WTO decision to rule against the U.S gave the online gambling industry some hope, but unfortunately the sanction imposed by the WTO was not enough to change the U.S position towards online gaming. There have been several other efforts and actions to at list ease the U.S policy, several poker players, lawmakers and experts have explained their positions to the U.S Congress in a series of hearings, a group of congressmen have also introduced several bills to prevent the government from putting into place the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, but so far the situation stills the same.

The industry has been cornered several times in the last few years, several electronic payment and depositing companies such as FirePay and Neteller decided to quit from the online gaming business, leaving a hole that was progressively filled by other companies including Citadel and ePassporte. However, ePassporte announced last week that it will no longer provide its service to U.S. customers. In a statement released to online poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, ePassporte said:

“We have been advised that the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is conducting a widespread investigation of internet gambling, including poker. All though we do not believe we have done anything illegal, we do not wish to be associated with anything that might be considered illegal by the United States government. Therefore, we are terminating the ePurchase provisions of your agreement immediately and have suspended your account pending further review.”

Even when the numbers have dramatically dropped, the online gaming industry refuses to withdrawal from one of its most relevant sectors in the market, there are at list a couple of million players using gambling services only in the U.S, a situation that reflects that the Internet gambling industry will try to come up with new ways to keep on float in a sea of never-ending problems.