George Bush Aide Aiming to Push Forward UIGEA in Congress.

It seems like UIGEA just won’t go away…

Or at least in the eyes of us online poker players, just overturned already.

In a surprising twist of events that’s been recently unfolding on Capitol Hill, rumors are swirling wildly that William Wichterman, a close aide of current U.S. President George Bush, is trying to exert “considerable political pressure” to push forward UIGEA.

According to Politico.com, who first reported the story, it looks as if Wichterman has been working very closely with a high-ranking Washington lobbyist to not only to ban online gambling in America, but to also impose harsh penalties on any financial institutions, banks, and credit card companies who allow U.S. citizens to fund such “illegal” online wagering accounts.

The Bush administration is trying to get the process rolling before Barack Obama is sworn in as George Bush’s Presidential successor on January 20th, 2009. Many online poker opponents such as Arizona Senator Jon Kyl are aiming to have the UIGEA guidelines put into place before November 17th, 2008, which is around the same timeframe in which the new Democratic Presidential administration can make things a bit more difficult to pass any new laws or bills.

House Financial Committee leader Barney Frank is hoping to put a stop to any additional lobbying efforts for the implementation of UIGEA, and has vowed to continue working side by side with the PPA to ensure there’s plenty of wiggle room in the next few months to have such a vague law overturned. I’ll try and report on this story as much as possible as it unfolds even more over the next few days.