America’s Policy on Online Gambling – All You Need to Know
Online gambling has only been around for what – two decades? However, it is already part of the daily lives of many casino fans – it offers us the chance to enjoy our favourite games without budgeting the time to visit the casino itself. Online casinos are all around the UK, so you can easily play from your sofa after a hard day at work… but things aren’t the same in the USA, no sir!
The US policy on online gambling is… hard to understand, to say the least. For starters, you may have heard that it is strictly forbidden by Federal law – and this would be correct. However, with the US legal system being what it is, even though online gambling is banned, the separate states are allowed to pass their own legislation on the matter. This means that if you want to use an online casino in America, you would need a map!
Online punters have it a little easier than casino fans – there is a severe need of clearer regulations, but no one ever got sued for placing a bet online. The law that actually forbids it is based on the Wire Act of 1961, and back then there wasn’t even an internet, much less online bookies! To be safe, it is best to use payment methods like wire transfer and paysafe cards, or simply an authorized bookie. There are enough of those, though they might lack some of the features of their UK counterparts such as live betting.
When online gambling is concerned though – things get complicated. Here is where the potent mix of Federal, State and local laws becomes truly toxic. In the 60s, organised crime families were making top dollar by running wager operations via the ‘wire’ – in those years, this literally meant the phone. Lo and behold, a law was passed that deemed all such gambling illegal… and nowadays, USA legislature applies it to online casinos.
Strictly speaking, chances are you personally won’t get busted if you play at an online casino – if you pay anonymously! – but you will have a hard time finding an operator that would risk entering the US market. Online Casinos are legal only in New Jersey and Delaware, though Pennsylvania will soon be offering some licenses to potential operators. If you’re not lucky enough to be living in one of those states, then you will have to risk it and look for a casino that accepts anonymous payment. However, withdrawing your winnings can become quite a hassle with those.
Things are a little better where online poker is concerned, even though legislation has gotten much stricter after some huge scams were unveiled to the public in the 2000s. Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware still allow online poker rooms.
As you can see, that’s quite the limited market – in fact, we’ve found it much easier to travel directly to one of the tribal casinos that can be found in most states, rather than trying to navigate the legalities of online gambling in the USA. However, on this blog we will also keep track of the changes in America’s policy on the matter, since there are certainly signs that more and more US states will be loosening their internal legislation. However, the matter has been complicated by the recent outcry about hidden gambling in online computer games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Stories such as that of Elijah Ballard have once more stirred the policy-makers, so it remains to be seen whether online gambling is to get easier for us.