Black Friday Comes to Close, Paving Way for Online Gaming Legislation

The online gaming industry has spent nearly a year and a half waiting for a resolution to the Black Friday indictments. Questions surrounding the legal predicaments facing the three companies named in the lawsuit with the Department of Justice appear to have finally been answered. The industry is confident that the deal with the Justice Department could help legalize online gaming in the United States.

The resolution to the Black Friday indictments may play a key role in the future of online gaming legislation. The federal government has been deliberating the charges against Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker since April of 2011. Now that those charges have been resolved, officials will likely want to ensure they are not repeated in the coming years.

Many lawmakers are concerned that so many players have still spent their money on foreign gaming sites. They warn that American citizens are at risk of becoming victims of a major scam. They want to take new measures to prevent that from happening.

The Black Friday case hasn’t been fully fixed. However, they expect most of the underlying problems to be resolved shortly. Full Tilt has successfully transferred assets to PokerStars. PokerStars has said that it will keep Full Tilt Poker intact under a separate brand and management team.

As the lawmakers are no longer concerned about resolving the civil and criminal charges that arose from Black Friday, they may be more likely to focus their efforts on legislation. However, a number of key challenges remain. The odds of passing a bill to legalize online gaming this year may not be particularly high. However, every step in the right direction brings the United States closer to regulating online gaming.

This blog entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2012 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Blackjack News.