United States??

[dreamguardian1]

Hi,

So i have a huge question. Is it illegal to do online gambling casinos in the United States, California?

I am getting mixed messages, laws etc. Some say it is, some say its not, some say just restricted, others say have to use different payment types. It is confusing. Does anyone have a firm answer on this for me and other US Players?

 

[anniemac]

If you will have the mod move this to America the Beautiful, you will probably get some answers. But as it is where it is, don't think anyone will give you any insight.

 

[dreamguardian1]

Ya, i found that forum AFTER posting lol, but no real answer there either since thats a slightly older posting. Also, dont have the mod permission to do that (i dont think), so hopefullly someone will)

 

[ksech]

I sent a message asking for it to be moved for you. All you need to do, for future reference, is to click on the ! in the black triangle at the bottom of the page (it's the report post). A box will open and you type in your request/issue/etc.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Hi,

So i have a huge question. Is it illegal to do online gambling casinos in the United States, California?

I am getting mixed messages, laws etc. Some say it is, some say its not, some say just restricted, others say have to use different payment types. It is confusing. Does anyone have a firm answer on this for me and other US Players?

Even the DoJ can't make their minds up on this issue. It is illegal to process the transactions under UIGEA, but this law applies to the banks, not the players or the operator. The lack of a clear federal law on the matter has lead to a few states making the act of gambling itself illegal, a law that applies to the player and the operator. Since only the player is on US soil, they could in theory be arrested, but it seems they are often pressured into giving up rather than sent to jail. The operators WILL be sent to jail if they get found on US soil, but often get set free after agreeing to pay damages to the US treasury and never offering the service again to US players.

Operators will often wash their hands of the issue, and will accept US players, but say it is their responsibilty to check whether it is legal for them to pay. The suggested payment methods are all about sneaking the deposits and withdrawals past the US banking system by making them look like they have nothing to do with gambling. The danger for players isn't arrest, but that the DoJ will seize their payouts and the casino will walk away, leaving the player to carry the loss.

US players have lost considerable sums due to DoJ and FBI lead investigations leading to seizures of funds in transit. Whilst casinos usually make good the money via other means, this is only because they don't want US players to lose trust in them and stop depositing. Once a casino has decided to leave the US market, they are often reluctant to make good anything that doesn't make it past the DoJ on it's way to the player. The same can be said of the eWallets that appear and vanish. Both EWX and Quicktender were eventually busted by the DoJ, and forced out of the US market, but neither made good on promises that customers' funds would be returned. EWX simply shut up shop and vanished, whereas Quicktender created a scheme for returning customers' funds that was for most players unworkable as it invloved convincing a foreign bank to grant them a Euro denominated account within a month. Even this didn't cover money that Quicktender said had already been paid out, but never made it through the banking system to the customer.