iMEGA Deals A New Card In Online Gambling

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Lawsuit filed against US Attorney General Gonzales to halt enforcement of anti-online gambling law.

Setting the Internet message boards and company communications alight this week is news that a little known organisation titled the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, apparently with the objective of halting the enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve are also named in the lawsuit, which is accompanied by a request for "Temporary Restraints to Halt Enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) and Resume Internet Gambling."

Top executives of the organisation are scheduled to speak this Thursday at the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo (GIGSE) currently running in Montreal, and news of the litigation will ensure a large attendance of delegates for their session.

A statement released by the organisation advises that iMEGA is seeking judgment restraining the United States from enforcing the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006” (UIGEA). The current law prevents U.S. credit-card companies and banks from processing payments to online gambling businesses. According to the Act, violators are subject to civil and/or criminal penalties including imprisonment.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court outlines how the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act infringes upon basic constitutional rights and sets a dangerous precedent for I-commerce by criminalising the transmission of money if the end result is illegal in some unspecified place. The injunction, if granted, will prevent the government from enforcing the UIGEA and pave the way for Internet gambling to resume pending further order of the court.

“The purpose of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is to prevent Americans from engaging in their rights to conduct their lives in the manner they wish to live it - to be free from the government imposing public morality in the privacy of one’s home”, says Eric M. Bernstein, Esq., lead attorney for iMEGA.

The lawsuit also seeks to stop the enforcement of the UIGEA based on the recent ruling of the World Trade Organisation in a final appeal which found the United States in contempt of treaty obligations regarding Internet gambling.

Washington spokesmen recently said the United States would not appeal the ruling in favor of Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean nation which won the WTO challenge against the US and one nation where Internet gambling is legal. Instead, Washington says, the US will try to modify its treaty obligation to eliminate Internet gambling.  The WTO ruling permits sanctions to be imposed against the US.

According to the statement, the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association was established to be "a voice of reason in Washington and around the world for the fair, equitable, and rational governance of interactive Internet commerce and communications." The organisation is believed to be made up of many different individuals and has extensive funding.  

Edward Leyden, President of iMEGA, hopes the lawsuit "...will open the eyes of legislators [and] encourage the regulation and taxation of Internet gaming. Without transparency, American consumers who gamble online are left without standards of practice or consumer protections."

"Two major benefits come immediately from U.S. recognition and regulation of Internet gaming; transparency and tax revenues,” said Leyden. “As with the U.S. financial markets, transparency assures that broad access to relevant data and the balancing forces of a free market all operate to maintain fairness and prevent corruption. Similarly, in this age of a yawning federal "tax gap," U.S. taxation of Internet gaming transactions and companies could generate more than $20 billion during the next several years - all while saving federal law enforcement dollars for the fight against terrorism and other dire issues.”

iMEGA's lead legal expert, Eric M. Bernstein, Esq. has 25 years of experience in handling litigation on a wide range of subjects within the labour / employment law fields, including general advice and assistance, contract negotiations, interest and grievance arbitrations, fact-finding and mediation, disciplinary matters involving public safety and non-public safety employees.

He has served as a municipal attorney on issues as widely diverse as land use, ethics, municipal construction, local public contracts law, tax appeals, open space acquisition and government affairs. And as a board of education attorney, Bernstein has handled matters of special education, teacher/student discipline and budget appeals.

In regard to First Amendment / Internet law, Bernstein is a member of the First Amendment Lawyer's Association and the Free Speech Coalition.

In addition to his professional practice, Bernstein is a regular and frequently requested speaker at state and national organisations and has been teaching for the Rutgers University Bureau of Government Research since the early 1980s. Mr. Bernstein has written articles for publication and serves as a Director of the New Jersey State Bar Association Local Government Law Section, where he was previously Vice President and Editor of its newsletter.