Online casino payments to be processed by Neteller
The leading online casino payment processor, NETeller, has made it publicly known they intend to abide by the provisions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, when the bill passed by the U.S. Senate becomes enforceable itself and is written into law. As of yesterday, the company issued a statement declaring their intentions following the signing of the SAFE Port Act with provisions to ban internet gambling by President George W. Bush.
NETeller is by far the leading deposit and withdrawal method of choice for online casino gamblers. Spawned in 1999 as a direct result of the demand for third party payment processors who could facilitate exchanges between online casinos and U.S. depositors using credit and debit cards to fund their real-money accounts, NETeller took off fast and quickly became the most popular deposit method of choice for online gamers. In fact, the service became so user-friendly that online casinos began offering deposit percentage bonuses up to 12% to players who used NETeller to fund their accounts.
NETeller is by no means leaving the industry, nor are they ceasing to allow U.S. account holders to transfer funds to and from online casino sites. For now, NETeller will continue to do business as usual. A nine month window is allotted to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for developing and prescribing conditions that will specifically put the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into action, at which time, NETeller will again review their position in the U.S. industry.
There is no doubt that U.S. legislators are well aware of NETeller’s status in the industry, and will very likely be making provisions to specifically address their business done with U.S. citizens. Whatever is decided, it is now certain that NETeller will abide with the regulations as if they were a U.S. company. NETeller says they will continue to operate and diversify their non-U.S. facing business operations, including localized services in Europe – namely, Sweden and Denmark.
NETeller also informed U.S. players that accounts can still be opened with funds available in real time. Funds will continue to remain transferable with online casinos, while all moneys (regardless of the ability to transfer funds in the distant future) will always be available for withdrawal. Company stock holders were also addressed in the announcement – being told that NETeller’s preeminent decision regarding U.S. legislation was made in order to protect the shareholders, employees and business partners of NETeller, as well as to insure the support of principle commercial partners.
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