Is It Illegal To Gamble Online

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Editor note: this article was written before Black Friday March 3rd could have been a momentous day in the history of online gaming. It was the last day New Jersey Governor Chris Christie could. Is it Legal to Gamble Online in Canada? It is, however, illegal to operate an online casino or bookies site from Canada.

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Online gambling is big business. Growth of the platform has pushed the industry from a scant $200 million when it hit the Internet in 1997 to a $50 billion industry.

Online gambling takes all of the excitement, and winnings, of brick-and-mortar gaming and appeals to enthusiasts in all locations.

This is where the legal questions begin to appear. If online gambling can be done from anywhere to anywhere, how does it stand legally and what bodies police that?

We’ll outline answers to each of these questions about online gambling laws in this article. First, let’s walk through where each element is legal, why, and finish with how to ensure any activity you engage in is as safe as possible.

Online Gambling Laws

Legality of any industry takes some nuance to understand. What may be legal in one place will not be in another place. What is legal can be illegal when done with one method and not another.

So, rules of thumb and general gut instinct aren’t really the way to go with legality. Online gambling is a global industry, which changes the whats and wheres of the equation.

To make this easier to understand, we’ll take a walk through the activities themselves. We’ll point out the nuance of what modality is legal and which is not.

Where gambling can be marketed represents another core portion of gambling legality. Only certain types of marketing can be done in some locations.

Then we’ll go over the places that major gambling hubs are located and the strength of the laws in those areas.

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We’ll also do our best to explain why these differences exist so you can hit the digital casino floor with confidence.

Types of Gambling

Like many businesses, online gambling diversifies by offering various products.

Generally, online gambling falls into two major categories: sports betting and casinos.

Sports betting has more restrictions than casino games. Partially because the bets that can be placed on sports have some variation in their outcomes. The other part is how betting effects odds and payouts.

Casino games cover a larger list of individual offerings, but the rules and outcomes of each gamed are set and mimic their real-world equivalents.

Sports Betting

Particularly in the United States, sports betting has some tricky restrictions. The question of sports betting is better asked, “What methods are legal?”

Betting over the phone to a location where sports betting enjoys legal status is fine. Betting on sports online faces restrictions designed to prevent tampering.

No matter how many people engage in a casino game, the chances of winning remain the same. For sports betting, a lot of heavy action predicting an outcome actually changes the odds and the payouts.

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Leaving this system open to the online world creates too many loopholes. Interested parties could force a higher payout or cover losses by pushing the odds.

Indeed, a lot of bets being placed in a particular outcome, especially an underdog outcome, can cause investigations by regulatory boards.

For these reasons, the Wire Act prevents sports betting online within the United States. Other countries follow similar reasoning behind their restrictions. While phone and in-person sports betting can affect odds, the efforts required restrict the enterprise.

Casinos

Casino games operate via computers and carefully guarded electronic chip programming. The online versions of these games are all but identical to their real-world counterparts. This makes it easy to regulate such gaming and to enforce legality.

So the answer to the question “are online casinos legal?” is an essential yes. However, that doesn’t mean that they are without risk and using them may not have some trouble attached.

Casino games may or may not operate for real money. Many use a credit system that enables a transfer of funds from real money to propriety money and then back again. This gets around some restrictions while creating issues for others.

You always want to check on the reputation and location of a casino to confirm it meets standards.

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Doing a lot of heavy winning and losing in online gaming may also draw the attention of investigative services keen to prevent money laundering.

Marketing

Advertising and marketing for casinos can be illegal. Generally, the locations where casinos and gambling are legal are places where related advertising is legal.

This is why mostly you will see ads for online gambling online. The print publishers, in the United States particularly, have restrictions owing to ideas of endorsing public indecency.

Places

You might be thinking, “Where is it illegal to gamble online?” The answer depends much less on where you do it from. What you want to avoid is where the transactions take place.

While online gambling is legal to do, it is not legal to host in all places. The following explains the restrictions and rules from major countries. These countries have either high numbers of gamblers or restrictions.

The key things to look for in each location are the rules of the regulatory board, the restrictions on where players can operate, and the restrictions on what games may be played.

France

The regulated body in France is ARJEL (Autorite de regulation des Jeux en ligne). This gaming commision covers both casino and sports betting for France. They impose a high tax rate, which limits the number of operators and directly effects marketing.

Online poker in France may only be played with other players in France. No international players outside of the borders may play there. This limits the fluidity of currency in the market and also the prize pools.

Italy

Prior to 2010 gambling in Italy had major restrictions even to other EU nations. Since 2010 companies outside the country have received gaming licenses which have opened up the pools for players in casinos and sports betting.

Is It Illegal To Gamble Online

Much like France, poker sites are ring-fenced and players outside the country cannot be legally found.

The tax rate is half that of France, which provides opportunities for more companies to obtain licenses affordably.

United Kingdom

The UK Gambling Commission oversees all gambling in the country. This includes casinos, sports betting, and lower-stakes games like bingo and keno.

In a sharp contrast to the previous EU nations, the United Kingdom licenses were too broad. Loopholes allowed companies outside the UK to operate legally, but carry no tax burden. Only UK based companies had to be licensed.

This created two problems, the first being many companies restructured to avoid being taxed. The second was the lack of jurisdiction for many sites gave the UK no ability intervene with player disputes.

Canada

Not unlike the United States, Canada has little regulation as a country and leaves the laws up to individual provinces.

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This allows a lot of companies to operate out of Canada or to find players in Canada. Much like the UK loophole, Canadian gaming can have issues finding redress for player disputes from lack of jurisdiction.

For example, a portal site can help you find pre-approved sites. View here for one such portal.

United States

The United States seems backward with its gambling laws. Rather than have a countrywide law against gambling it has specific states and instances where gambling is legal. This makes online gambling legal when not expressly forbidden.

The restrictions on sports betting offer the most widely established prohibitions.

While this makes the US a great place to play from, it can get muddy if there is an issue because laws don’t dictate what to do in such cases.

Hosting games, on the other hand, does have associated laws and only three states where it is legal.

Delaware

Like all of the US states gambling is restricted to persons 21 and older. The tax rate is the highest in the world at 45%.

Gaming can be done from various platforms and covers a few different games. These are managed through the Delaware Lottery which regulates all gaming in the state.

Nevada

Nevada has the same regulations for online gaming as it does for its real-life gaming. Both of these services work through the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The tax rate is a paltry 6.75%

Since 2015 their poker network has also been shared with Delaware’s.

Online poker and sports betting can be hosted in the state and accessed from elsewhere. Casino style games can be hosted locally by casinos but only in their real-life buildings.

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New Jersey

Following the same model as Nevada, online poker and sports betting hosted in the state.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is the regulatory body. It also allows casino-style games to be attached to brick-and-mortar licensed casinos. Play on these sites is restricted to within the properties themselves.

More Information

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If you want to know more about online gambling laws check out our entertainment blog for worldwide updates. We can’t promise that everything will apply to you, but we can assure you that we have at least something for everyone.

Is It Illegal To Gamble Online

We’ll update information about online gambling laws as they continue to shape and change. But for now, get out there and play as you want, secure that things, for now, are not too risky.