UIGEA made the processing of payments to Internet gaming sites illegal (not the actual playing of poker online), and although it subsequently became more difficult for US players to play on the web for real money, many persisted, and some poker sites decided to defy the new law and continue processing funds, some via slightly nefarious means.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, and despite condemnation from the World Trade Organization - which said UIGEA was illegal - the Act was signed into the statute books. UIGEA was created in 2006 as a last-minute, unrelated addition to the SAFE Ports Act, which sought to limit foreign ownership of key US ports. Players' funds were seized, and while some were paid back fairly quickly, others had their funds held back for years, and only now are some of those American online players beginning to receive their cash at long last.īut the Black Friday raids wouldn't have come without UIGEA being in place. The Black Friday raids targeted the websites, CEOs and payment processors of the major global poker sites - PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute/UB - on charges of money laundering and fraud.
