UIGEA becomes US law

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law on 13 October 2006 as part of the SAFE Port Act. It prohibited businesses from knowingly accepting payments connected to unlawful online bets. Within days, publicly listed operators such as PartyGaming and 888 exited the US market and their share prices collapsed.

UIGEA did not itself criminalise placing a bet; instead it targeted the money flows, requiring banks and payment processors to block transactions tied to unlawful internet gambling. Because compliance risk fell on financial institutions and on listed companies, the London-listed giants that dominated US-facing online poker and casino chose to withdraw rather than risk prosecution. PartyGaming, then the largest online poker operator, lost roughly 60% of its market value within 24 hours and later reached a US$300 million non-prosecution settlement. The law reshaped the industry's geography: regulated, exchange-listed firms retreated to Europe and other licensed markets, while privately held operators such as PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker stayed in the US and captured the vacated share — a decision that set the stage for the 2011 'Black Friday' indictments.

UIGEA split the industry into compliant listed operators who left the US and privately held ones who stayed — the fault line that defined the next decade.