How To Create A Online Gambling Site
Online Gambling
Don’t Roll the Dice
06/06/07
If you’ve ever thought about visiting a cyber casino, here’s something you should know: it’s illegal to gamble online in the United States.
“You can go to Vegas. You can go to Atlantic City. You can go to a racetrack. You can go to those places and gamble legally. But don’t do it online. It’s against the law,” says Leslie Bryant, head of our Cyber Crime Fraud unit at FBI Headquarters.
That means:
…No placing cyber bets on sporting events or in virtual card games;
Another approach is to develop your online casino from the ground up, starting on a blank page, save for the idea that inspired you in the first place. This takes time, dedication, drive, ideally. Hosting - hosting is selected quite simply and there are no special instructions and variations, it is preferable to have a hosting in the country in which you want to create a gambling site. Website development - you have two options to create a casino related website, either do it yourself, or order from a programmer (or a company which will make it fast and with good quality).
…No transferring money electronically for gambling; and
…No wagers in offshore Internet casinos even if you live in the U.S.
What’s allowed? Some free online games, fantasy leagues, and Indian gaming sites that aren’t strictly defined as Internet gambling.
It’s also illegal for businesses to run gambling websites and to solicit online bets. Even companies handling transactions for cyberspace bettors can face federal charges.
Cracking down. Our strategy for tackling illegal online gambling—as a key enforcement agency—is to start with the companies providing the services in the first place. “We’re going after the people making the money—the owners of these virtual casinos, gaming rooms, and off-track betting parlors,” Bryant says.
We currently have about a dozen of these cases in motion. One of the biggest came last July when a federal grand jury in St. Louis returned a 22-count indictment against 11 individuals and four companies for their involvement in illegal online gaming and related activities. On May 24, one of the companies—BetonSports— pled guilty to racketeering charges in the case.
We’ve also had success against companies supporting the money flows behind virtual gambling. In January, for example, two Canadians were charged with operating an Internet payment services company that transferred billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds between U.S. citizens and the owners of online gambling sites outside the country.
In 2003, another Internet financial services company paid $10 million in a civil agreement to settle allegations that it aided illegal offshore and online gambling agreements. The U.S. government has also settled several cases with online businesses that have accepted money to market virtual gambling operations.
Think a little online gambling can’t cost you? Don’t bet on it. Even if you don’t get caught gambling, you could well lose the money you have in an online gaming account if the company faces charges, since the U.S. government seizes assets in these cases whenever possible.
FYI, here are the primary federal laws that govern online gambling:
- Transmission of wagering, betting by use of a wire communication
- Broadcasting lottery information
- Fraud by wire
- Mail fraud: Attempt and Conspiracy
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For more information on our cyber investigations and operations, see our Cyber Investigations website.
Gambling online falls into a legal grey area. While it is technically illegal in most of the United States, the prosecution and conviction of individual players is very difficult because they're gambling from home. It is also illegal for a gambling Web site to operate within the United States, which is why the offices and servers of most online casinos are located in other countries. There are about 70 countries that allow online gambling sites to set up shop, including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, and some provinces of Canada.
When you register for an online casino, you are required to agree to the site's terms and conditions. Finding out whether or not gambling is legal where you live is your responsibility. You must also abide by any age limits set on gambling in your locality. If online gambling is illegal in your area, and authorities discover that you've won money, your winnings could be forfeit.
The Fort Hall Casino near Idaho Falls and Pocatello, not far from the border with Wyoming, is the king of the casinos in Southern Idaho. No fewer than 900 machines await at the Fort Hall Casino, which helps to make it one of the top places to gambling in Idaho, and should you be interested, the bingo hall can accommodate up to 200 people. Closest casino to idaho falls id.
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Issues of jurisdiction and sovereignty make gambling laws even murkier. The U.S. Wire Wager Act makes it illegal to use an electronic wire method (which courts generally agree includes the Internet) to transmit bets to places where gambling is not allowed. So a casino set up in the Netherlands is breaking U.S. law if a player in the U.S. plays their games. However, the U.S. doesn't really have the legal authority to prosecute someone in another country. Since players are almost never prosecuted either, we're left with an illegal act that generally goes unpunished. Of course, if an off-shore casino decides to cheat a player out of winnings, and online gambling is illegal in that player's locality, the player will have a difficult time suing the casino.
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This brings us to the topic of regulation. Some of the countries that allow online casinos to operate have strict guidelines and regulations that make sure the casinos operate legitimately. They make sure the casino pays out when players win, and they ensure that published odds match the actual odds programmed into each game. Australian and Finnish online casinos are known for adhering to national standards. Some countries are not so strict about regulation and may be more interested in taxing the casinos than making sure that they play fair. There are many online casinos to choose from, and it pays to do some research into the regulations they must follow when you select one.
In the next section, we'll find out how players make their money available for online gambling.