Will online gambling return to the US
The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) announced that it was contacted by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on the occasion of its response brief that was filed by the association in November last year in a legal challenge to declare the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) unconstitutional. The court informed the iMEGA about is availability in April 2009. The main problem with the UIGEA is that the act has no accurate definition of what should be considered unlawful: instead the law imposed on financial institutions the responsibility to determine the legality of individual online gambling sites which is unconstitutional. The vagueness of the legislation plunged the whole industry into turmoil. The largest online poker room at the time, PartyPoker, vacated the U.S. market followed by others, including Paradise Poker and Pacific Poker. Then those who started departing the U.S. were payment processors like NETeller and Citadel. iMEGA has since been granted standing to sue to declare the UIGEA unconstitutional. The defendants listed in the case which is appeal number 08-1981 are former U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Reserve. iMEGA noted that officials from the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve testified before Congress that they would not be able to enforce the UIGEA, as a strict definition of what is legal and illegal was never given. Nevertheless, the regulations of the law were passed by the Bush Administration. 
The origin of iMEGA dates back to 2007 when the organization almost immediately found itself immersed in the internet gambling industry. iMEGA is located in Washington, D.C. and its main counsel in the UIGEA challenge is Eric Bernstein. In March, Judge Mary L. Cooper of the New Jersey U.S. District Court granted the organization standing to sue.