At the Next Generation in Gambling Conference in Montreal, Joe Brennan, Chairman of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), spoke with iGaming News in a video posted on the Poker Players Alliance website about the organization’s lawsuit against the Federal Government of the United States. The suit in question surrounds the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which iMEGA believes is unconstitutional. iMEGA is on the verge of filing its case in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
iMEGA is dedicated to fostering growth and innovation of the internet. For Brennan, the issue boils down to hypocrisy between being able to play poker (for example) in a casino, but not on your computer:
You have a law that criminalizes an activity that’s illegal online, but perfectly legal offline. The rights that we have as Americans should translate to the online world; there should be no inconsistencies. We should have the same rights online as we have offline.
Moreover, the scope of the UIGEA is very wide, according to Brennan. The law states that any activity that was illegal before it was passed is still illegal. However, no specifics have been given, forcing banks and other financial institutions to enforce the law by prohibiting anything that resembles an internet gambling transaction. Brennan explains,
The other problem we have with this law is that it’s very broad. The people who supported this law… have legitimate concerns about people who are problem gamblers, underage kids gambling, and fraud. But in trying to address those concerns, they created a very broad law that is essentially ineffective in doing so.
What exists now is an industry where, in Brennan’s eyes, consumers are less secure online than they were before the UIGEA was passed back in 2006:
A law to protect people from fraud, problem gambling, identity theft, and underage gambling actually makes those people more susceptible to all of those things by removing the companies that protect them. I’m not a lawyer, but if you make somebody less safe with a law, then it’s a bad law.
On Friday, iMEGA announced that Stephen A. Saltzburg, professor of law at George Washington University, had joined iMEGA’s legal team. The organization’s counsel now consists of Saltzburg, iMEGA President and Chief Counsel Ed Leyden, and Lead Counsel Eric M. Bernstein. iMEGA has until the end of September to file its case in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which is a court historically supportive of First Amendment rights like those iMEGA is arguing.
Brennan commented in a press release posted on iMEGA’s website,
The addition of Saltzburg to our line-up demonstrates that iMEGA is serious about meeting the U.S. Department of Justice on equal terms in court and that we have strong advocates making a compelling argument as to why the court should overturn this troubling law.
iMEGA is based in Washington, D.C. and was founded in 2007. It was granted standing to sue on behalf of the internet gambling industry in March by Judge Mary L. Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
