On Wednesday the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department issued a final rule to enforce the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed by Congress in 2006.

The ruling comes just two days after Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, accused the current administration of rushing the ruling through.

"This midnight rulemaking will tie the hands of the new administration, burden the financial services industry at a time of economic crisis and contradict the stated intent of the Financial Services Committee," Frank said, according to Reuters.

The 2006 act prohibited businesses from knowingly accepting payments -- made through checks, electronic fund transfers and credit cards -- that are connected to unlawful Internet gambling.

Wednesday's ruling to implement the 2006 act requires "U.S. financial firms that participate in designated payment systems to establish and implement policies that are reasonably designed to prevent payments to businesses in connection with unlawful Internet gambling," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Frank's main objection to the ruling was that it failed to define exactly what constitutes unlawful Internet gambling, "leaving it to each financial institution to reconcile conflicting state and federal laws, court decisions and inconsistent Department of Justice interpretations when determining whether to process a transaction," Reuters reported.

"Furthermore, some of the information needed to make this determination would likely be unavailable to banks because customers or financial institutions in foreign jurisdictions will likely be unwilling or unable to provide it," said Frank, according to Reuters.

The House Financial Services Committee had passed a bill in September to prevent the Federal Reserve and Department of Treasury from issuing rules, requiring that they first define the term "unlawful Internet gambling." The bill hasn't been passed by the full Congress, however.