The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to stop the United States from enforcing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
"The purpose of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is to prevent Americans from engaging in their fundamental rights to conduct their lives in the manner they wish to live it - to be free from the government imposing public morality in the privacy of one's home," said iMEGA attorney Eric M. Bernstein, Esq., in a statement.
The suit, which names U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve System as defendants, is not the first Internet gambling suit to be filed against the U.S.
Antigua and Barbuda won a World Trade Organization dispute, proving that the U.S. is unfairly blocking foreign competition for Internet gambling services to U.S. citizens. And last January, Casino City dropped a suit against the U.S. Department of Justice that sought to protect First Amendment rights to advertise Internet gambling services.
The most recent litigation from iMEGA plans to use the WTO ruling as evidence that the UIGEA is unconstitutional.
The group's Web site (www.imega.org) contains no content outside of a logo and text reading "Coming Soon" and calls itself "a voice of reason in Washington and around the world for the fair, equitable, and rational governance of interactive Internet commerce and communications."
Edward Leyden, president of iMEGA, will be speaking at the Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo (GIGSE) in Montreal on Thursday at noon.
