Washington D.C to Legalize Intrastate Online Poker

Washington D.C is likely to become to first US state to legalize intrastate online poker laying the framework for regulating state-wide online poker to be offered to its residents in a move that was reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

The irony in having Washington D.C as the first US state to allow for intrastate online poker does not escape anyone who is familiar with the USA's online gambling legal issues and the fact that the Washington D.C was the birth place of the UIGEA.

The UIGEA stands for Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was approved in Washington D.C back in 2006 and has effectively ended all legal online gambling within the US by making it illegal for US-based financial institutions to handle money transactions from and to online gaming companies.

The law made many online gaming companies pull out of the US market by shutting their local offices and refusing to accept US players. Some online gaming companies moved offshore and continued to offer their services to US players In defiance of US federal laws.

Now the birth place of anti online gaming legislation is giving new hope to supporters of legal reform both on national and state levels by reporting that the district's lottery could have a state-bound online poker system before the end of 2012.

Already last year the Washington D.C council approved a special budget which will establish internet poker for the 600,000 district's residents.

With this move Washington D.C is likely to beat to the punch other states attempting to legalize intrastate online poker such as New Jersey, California, Nevada and Hawaii, and various pressure groups and businesses of interest to push for interstate solution and repeal the UIGEA of 2006.