Reports have been circulating that two of the UK’s leading financial brands, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), will shortly advise its corporate customers to avoid any further involvement in taking Internet bets from the United States.
According to banking and gaming industry sources, the two banks will advise corporate clients that they are no longer prepared to do business with companies that take online bets from the United States, before investigating ways of preventing US retail customers from online gambling.
Online gambling companies were left reeling last week following the decision by US Congress to pass the Internet gambling law which reclassifies the processing of payments to online gambling firms by banks or credit card operators as illegal. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by President Bush later today, gives financial institutions 270 days to enforce restrictions.
A spokesperson from Barclays commented, “Once the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement provision has come into force it will be illegal for an online gaming company to accept Internet gambling related payments, and we are therefore contacting our customers to ensure that they will conduct their business and operations in full compliance with the legislation.”
British online money transfer firm Neteller Plc, which is heavily active in online gambling, has said that it is reviewing the situation.
Two hundred and seventy days is pretty reasonable indeed to take stock of the situation, even though the move to deny players to go online is unreasonable!
October 15, 2006, 6:18 pm (2 years ago)
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