The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have finalized guidelines for financial institutions under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The rules will be applied on Jan. 19, with banks required to comply by December 1, 2009.

The new component bars banks and credit card companies from taking part in transactions that deal with illegal gambling, though there is some controversy over just how to define such activities. The crux of the impact figures to be felt by the online gambling industry.

“The UIGEA has been in effect for more than two years and the fantasy carveout language is what the NFFC, NFBC, WCOFF and other high-stakes events are held to,” says Greg Ambrosius, fantasy sports hall of famer and founder of the National Fantasy Football Championship and National Fantasy Baseball Championship. “We guarantee the prizes as the law states. It’s a game of skill and we adhere to what is already in that bill and we were doing that long before this bill.”

The ”carveout language” that Ambrosius refers to can be found in Section 132.2(c)(5)(ix):

Participation in any fantasy or simulation sports game or educational game or contest in which (if the game or contest involves a team or teams) no fantasy or simulation sports team is based on the current membership of an actual team that is a member of an amateur or professional sports organization (as those terms are defined in 28 U.S.C. 3701) and that meets the following conditions:

(A) All Prizes and awards offered to winning participants are established and made known to the participants in advance of the game or contest and their value is not determined by the number of participants or the amount of any fees paid by those participants.

(B) All winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the participants and are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of individuals (athletes in the case of sports events) in multiple real-world sporting or other events.

(C) No winning outcome is based-

(2) Solely on any single performance of an individual athlete in any single real-world sporting or other event.

Here are a couple of mainstream-media reports on the legislation:

• The Wall Street Journal (11/13) — Online Gambling Faces New Curbs From the U.S.
• The Associated Press (11/11) — Administration finalizing Internet gambling regs

Tags: fantasy sports, fantasy sports business, fantasy sports industry, federal reserve, greg ambrosius, nfbc, nffc, online gambling, u.s. treasury department, uigea, wcoff

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