Of course it will go hand and hand with the UIEGA which supports individual states legalizing online gambling. If Abruzzo’s bill passes the operators will still have some obstacles to overcome before they are allowed to offer the citizens of Florida their gambling services. First and foremost they will have to pay an application fee of $500,000 to obtain their gambling license from the State of Florida after that they will be responsible for an annual license fee of $1000.

Once a company obtains the license they will have stiff gambling regulations to follow. They will have to set up precautions for money laundering and crime. They will also have to deter underage gambling. Another major regulation they are looking at is setting limits on amounts wagered and time spent wagering to protect against gambling addiction. The bill sounds very interesting and has great safe guards that should alleviate some of the tensions from antigambling groups. If passed the state would receive somewhere around 20% on gross wins which would help the state of Florida tremendously.

It has been reported that the FBI is actually contacting players to find out about deposit methods and other information. It seems many of the players they are contacting are in the Washington area since online poker is a felony in the state.

The UIEGA goes into effect June 1st so some are speculating that could be why the FBI is gathering information now. Poker Stars responded to the article saying they had opinions from many different attorneys in the US that it was not in violation of any US Law. Full Tilt didn’t respond back to Forbes when asked to comment. As June 1st approaches we could see many stories like this hit the press.

Loto Quebec will take on the responsibility of directing the citizens to legal and safe sites for gambling. They will be working with the BC and Atlantic Lottery Corp hand and hand to make sure the citizens find legit gambling sites.

Many Canadians already gamble online and its projected by 2012 Canadians will be wagering over $1 billion Canadian a year on the internet. Bachand, The Minister of Finance, expects to see a profit of around $50 Canadians dollars within about three years. However you look at it the Canadians will be reaping the gambling dollars and it looks to start later this fall.

Well on Friday Carruthers received his sentence. He will spend 33 months in prison, plus he had already agreed to forfeit $43 million dollars to the US government. So the case that has gone on for over three years finally comes to an end. In fact that follows the sentencing of Betonsports founder Gary Kaplan who was sentenced at the end of 2009. So the Betonsports saga has come to an end and it was in favor of the US government which is no surprise. This was to show the muscle of the US government when it comes to illegal sports betting and the goal was accomplished.

This stance by Belgium was ruled against in 2009 by the European Union. However Belgium officials seem to hold the ruling in total disregard has they move forward with their plans. Unfortunately online poker itself will be the greatest victim. The Belgium government doesn’t intend to act on this until late 2010 so there is still some time poker players and poker rooms can fight against this even though it could be an uphill battle for them from here.

The two newest co-sponsors for the bill come out of Mississippi and Washington. Congressman Bennie Thompson comes out of the second district of Mississippi and Adam Smith comes out of the ninth district of Washington.

On a further note, Barney Franks and eighteen other lawmakers sent a letter to the Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve Chairman this week to request a delay of the rules for the UIEGA. The rules for the UIEGA are set to go into effect in just a few months and the letter stated that the banks already have enough stress without implementing a new set of rules for the UIEGA.

The lawmakers are asking for a year extension on the rules going into effect. A year would allow Franks to work on getting his bill passed which would erase the UIEGA and make online gambling legal again. So far there has not been an answer to the request but hopefully one will soon follow.

This particular case was between Portuguese State Betting Monopoly, Santa Casa and the Portuguese’s Soccer League along with Bwin. Santa Casa wanted to forbid the soccer league the opportunity to advertise Bwin to fans during their games so this strike is a definitely a setback for online gambling.

There are more cases to follow across the European Union. Each case will be interesting to watch and hopefully they are not all against online gambling. Some countries involved in the other cases are Germany and the Netherlands. While the Portuguese Ruling was a setback it was only a minor one the cases still pending will cover a broader scope so be sure to follow.

Kaplan will spend 41 to 51 months in jail and turn over more than 43 million dollars in assets. The last 2.5 years will count toward his sentencing.

So what happens to the 43 million seized from Kaplan. A very interesting question since BetonSports owes players 16 million dollars. Vantis, which is an UK accounting group hired to help settle the debt of Betonsports reported in July that only 2 million had be allocated to return to players so the most logical answer would be to go after the 43 million seized. On the other side the US government will not let that money go easily. The US government sees the money as criminal proceeds to most likely the money will stay in the US.

Sen. Menendez will limit his bill to online poker and other skill games. The bill also includes a lot of safeguards once online poker is legal. The safeguards include checking the jurisdiction of the player, and verifying the age of the player. The bill also asks for other safe guards against money laundering and fraud which are two of the main fighting points for opponents of online gambling.

So of course when it becomes legal to bet online the government will want its share of the money that hits the poker tables. The bill is set up to take in 10% of all deposits, then the state government would get 5% and the federal would get the other 5%. While it’s a big hit at least it would be legal to play a hand of online poker.

Banks are big supporters of this bill and of Rep. Frank’s bill. They see no way they will be able to apply the new law that takes effect at the end of the year that bans all forms of online gambling, known as the UIEGA. The UIEGA puts the entire burden on the banks to stop online gambling which is pretty much impossible. So the banks will be watching Sen. Menendez’s bill along with Rep. Frank’s bill and hope this is a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel. So it is not looking to bad for online gambling right now with two strong bills going through Congress, hopefully at least one will make its way out.

The EU has said the US is in violation of World Trade Laws and has asked on a few occasions for the US to come into compliance; adding, that if the United States fails to comply with the law they will be forced to take the issue to the WTO.

The meeting on Monday though showed that both countries were ready to set down at the table again to come to an agreement. The EU Commissioner Aston said that the four issues they have chosen to move forward on look ripe and hope to come up with a creative solution for all. Hopefully the creative solution they come up with will be in favor of legalizing online gambling in the United States.

There is some other positive gambling news to report today. Barney Franks has introduced both his bills for this year. One would be to delay the enforcement of the UIEGA until further studies could be done on the impact and the other bill is to legalize and tax online gambling.

In the beginning it seemed both bills didn’t stand a fighting chance and would end up the same position as the bill Rep. Franks introduced in 2008. However it seems now that the bills are making head way. Bill H.R. 2267 which legalizes online gambling has enormous support by lawmakers and now has more than 40 co-sponsors.

Lawmakers on the other side of the aisle are recognizing the support of the bill. Some even saying that supporters of online gambling are ready to fight this time.