I recently reviewed an account in which the customer had many incoming foreign wires and even more international ACH debits that were very vague in their descriptions. I had the branch contact the customer to get an explanation for all of the international activity, and the customer revealed that he is gambling online. If UIGEA does not define "unlawful Internet gambling" how do I know if the customer is involved in illegal gambling? I don't know what websites he is going to, and even if I did, how do I know if it's illegal or not? I'm trying to decide if a SAR is warranted and if we need to tell the customer to stop. Thank you in advance for your help.

For the player, if online gambling is illegal, it's illegal under state, not federal law. In my home state, it's illegal or at least our governor thinks so.

This web site has a state by state matrix that should tell you what you need to know. I cannot vouch for it's accuracy, but I've had reason to follow this topic lately and this web site seems a bit less off the wall than most of those that discuss online gambling.

With some of the other web sites I think the motto might well be: "They can have my electronic straight flush when they pry it out of my cold dead hand!" You would think people were trying to take away their AK-47 or something!

And somehow online poker was excluded from the reg as "illegal online gambling..."

Go figure.

Oh, oh, I know this! The argument is that poker is a game of skill, not a game of chance. Although every poker player is subject to the "luck of the draw," they figure that skill is the major variable in winning and losing.

I've had my clock cleaned at poker often enough to believe there is some truth to that.

Yes, I heard that argument. Sounds more to me like a way for our elected officials to avoid getting caught in their own net when they have an online poker habit..........

I guess I am still confused about UIGEA. Do I, as a Bank, have an obligation to prvent this activity from posting to a consumer's account or only block the activity of the gambling site and it processing of their payments?

UIGEA regulations focus on blocking deposits from illegal Internet gambling to commercial, not consumer, accounts.

Any actions you take toward monitoring consumer accounts for illegal Internet gambling and responding when you find it are motivated by other concerns, generally violations of state law and SAR filing.

What's nice is the regulators realize that this is a tricky requirement to follow - how are we supposed to catch real time transactions?

The truth is - we aren't. The bank is only required to block future transactions once the bank has found illegal internet gambling has taken place.

Actually finding the internet gambling will likely be fueled by some other reason for monitoring the account.

Working on this project and learn a little more each day. The USC indicates that a violation of state gambling laws is (unconnected with UIGEA) a violation of federal law.

The interpretation is significant. Last week DOJ froze 30 million in deposits, much of the money belonging to consumers, citing this provision.

I heard about that on NPR last week and immediately thought of you, Ken!

We inadvertently discovered that a customer is receiving gambling payouts via ACH. We do not know if this is an online site or not. By doing a web search on the name, it looks like there is a physical location and an online casino. Gambling is illegal in Wyoming, but obviously you can travel to places where it is not. So, without really knowing if this is online or not, would you recommend a SAR?

wyogirl,

Occam's Razor would suggest that if your customer were gambling in a physical casino in a jurisdiction where such was legal, that your customer would have collected their winnings there as well.

It's probably worth asking your customer.

The second issue, though, is the passage of gambling funds through your bank. Especially if gambling is illegal in Wyoming.