Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
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| Other short titles |
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| Long title | An Act to prevent the use of certain payment instruments, credit cards, and fund transfers for unlawful Internet gambling, and for other purposes. |
| Acronyms (colloquial) | UIGEA |
| Nicknames | Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act |
| Enacted by | the 109th United States Congress |
| Effective | October 13, 2006 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 109-347 |
| Statutes at Large | 120 Stat. 1884 aka 120 Stat. 1952 |
| Codification | |
| Titles amended | 31 U.S.C.: Money and Finance |
| U.S.C. sections created | 31 U.S.C. ch. 53, subch. IV § 5361 et seq. |
| Legislative history | |
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The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act (found at 31 U.S.C. §§ 5361–5367) which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA "prohibits gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with the participation of another person in a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any federal or state law." The act specifically excludes fantasy sports that meet certain requirements, skill-games and legal intrastate and intertribal gaming. The law does not expressly mention state lotteries, nor does it clarify whether inter-state wagering on horse racing is legal.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in November 2002 that the Federal Wire Act prohibits electronic transmission of information for sports betting across telecommunications lines but affirmed a lower court ruling that the Wire Act "'in plain language does not prohibit Internet gambling on a game of chance." While some states have specific laws prohibiting online gambling, many do not. Additionally, in order for an online gaming company to start, a license from the state is required. The only state to ever issue a license was Nevada, in March 2013.
The Act was passed on the last day before Congress adjourned for the 2006 elections. According to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), no one on the Senate-House Conference Committee had seen the final language of the bill before it was passed.The Economist has written that these provisions were "hastily tacked onto the end of unrelated legislation".
Although a bill with the gambling wording was previously debated and passed by the House of Representatives, the SAFE Port Act (H.R. 4954) as passed by the House on May 4 and the United States Senate on September 14, bore no traces of the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act that was included in the SAFE Port Act signed into law by George W. Bush on October 13, 2006. The UIGEA was added in Conference Report 109-711 (submitted at 9:29pm on September 29, 2006), which was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 409-2 and by the Senate by unanimous consent on September 30, 2006. Due to H.RES.1064, the reading of this conference report was waived.
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