The online gambling industry this week was abuzz over the news that one of the world’s most powerful financial institutions, MasterCard, had spent $840,000 in the 3rd quarter of 2010 lobbying for new online gambling regulatory laws in the United States.
That doesn’t necessarily mean MasterCard is a fan of Internet gambling. More likely, the company just wants the UIGEA gone — or fixed. The UIGEA is America’s basic law governing online gambling, and that bill assigns legal responsibility to banks and financial services companies like MasterCard.
That puts the regulatory and legal burden on companies like MasterCard, and it’s understandable that the company would seek to remove that risk.