The U.S. Treasury department and the Federal Reserve are telling bank they have only about six months to start following regulations pertaining to internet gambling.

Both agencies announced this week that the new regulations, which should have gone into effect on the 1st of December while be put off until June 1, 2010.

A major Democrat, who opposes the ban says he was pleased with the action of both agencies and added that he felt it would allow Congress more time to overturn a law passed vy Republicans back in 2006.

The policies are set to curb gambling online by forbidding banks to accept payment from checks, credit cards or electronic transfer to pay gambling bets.

The banking community felt that the new regulations would be hard to enforce because they were not specific of what “internet gambling” actually means. The banks had asked for a one year delay in the implementation of the law, referred to as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed by Congress back in 2006.

Former president George W. Bush issued rules that enforced the ban in November of 2008, and had scheduled December 1, 2009, as the deadline for compliance by the financial institutions.

In September of this year, a Philadelphia federal appeals court upheld the law from 2006, and rejected a challenge from a group of offshore bookies, that the law was vague and that it was a violation of privacy rights.

Gamblers from the U.S. have been said to account for about half of the money generated in the $16 billion dollar internet gambkling business, which is hosted mostly in overseas countries.