Is it illegal or does it just fall into the gray area. Say if I had a website with 1000+ us people and have gambling banners all over isnt that illegal? If there is no splash page like here
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02-27-07 10:56 AM #1
Promoting offshore gambling illegal?
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02-27-07 11:42 AM #2
My opinion. It is illegal and the splash page will not alter this.
Probably why SBR will be filtering IPs
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02-27-07 11:59 AM #3
It is very illegal in the usa to promote illegal wagering.
Example I cannot go around promoting a local with signs on telephone poles, same exact thing with offshores.SBR Founder Join Date: 7/20/2005
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02-27-07 03:08 PM #4
Sometimes, people make things up.
It is a gray area.
The facts are this:
It is illegal to book bets in the United States. It is also illegal to handle the money (Work as an agent) within the United States and lay off the bets as you are basically booking them.
Is it illegal to advertise gambling? No one knows.
In 2003, the DOJ sent a letter to the major media companies - ESPN, Google, ABC, Yahoo, etc and told them that it "may be aiding and abetting" to advertise internet gambling sites. The DOJ did not say it is as they too are unsure and it has never been proven either way in court.
In 2004 or so, the DOJ pursued Sportingnews. Sportingnews is owned by Paul Allen and rather than fight a case that could have costed millions, he agreed to a few million fine and $5 million or so in radio commercials saying gambling online is illegal. Once again nothing was proven as they took on a multibillionaire who chose his reputation over a fight.
In 2005, Casinocity sued the DOJ trying to establish the right to advertise online gambling. Rather than let a federal court decide this issue of free speech, the DOJ got the case dismissed by stating they never threatened casinocity and do not plan to... You can read about the case at casinocity.com
In 2005 or 2006, the state of PA arrested a man for having a website with gambling ads. He was also acting as an agent and handling cash for bettors. He plead to some probation or a few days in jail. Once again, he was taking cash.
In 2006, WA made a website owner take down his site. HE took it down and then moved it out of WA.
Major corporations like ESPN, billboard companies, governors, celebs, etc advertise online wagering every day. The notion that bodog.net is not advertising gambling is a fallacy and would not hold up in court. It makes the execs feel better. The bottom line is the DOJ does not want to start a multimillion dollar legal battle with a corporation that might fight. SO they dont and the gray area remains.
So, is advertising online wagering legal? No one really knows. If it was ever truly tested in court, it would likely go to the supreme court and would likely be found to be a freedom of speech right. It is not illegal for me to tell you how to make a bomb - there are legal uses for bombs. It is not illegal for me to tell you how to make XTC. There are legal places for XTC. It is also probably not illegal for me to tell you where you can gamble (Especially if I tell you it is illegal in some locales). That being said, I don't have the money to fight the US government and I imagine most other people feel the same way. No one really wants to fight an organization that has endless cash and no respect for laws or the constitution.
Until someone gets arrested and fights, we will not know.... It is a gray area.
Sean
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02-27-07 04:13 PM #5 Advertising online gaming
It is illegal to advertise activities that are illegal. If you are not in the business of gaming, and don't live in a state that explicitly forbids it, it is illegal for the sportsbook, but legal for the bettor.
What it comes down to is that it is a grey area. Since the DOJ is going after those operating in the grey area, I would not get involved with it.
If you are on the internet you can claim you are advertising to non-us visitors. Even though it is unlikely a court would find you guilty of anything doing this, the DOJ likes to arrest people anyhow - even if the chance of a conviction is close to zero.
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02-27-07 05:18 PM #6
Go to any sports handicappers web site and you will have all sorts of advertising to sportsbooks, promotions for books etc.
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02-27-07 07:13 PM #7
Is me wearing my free T-Shirt from VIP illegal?!?!?
Originally Posted by jjgold
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02-28-07 03:20 AM #8
sean is one damn smart cat...
SBR Founder Join Date: 8/18/2005
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02-28-07 01:06 PM #9
Originally Posted by jjgold
Last edited by Willie Bee; 02-28-07 at 01:34 PM.
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02-28-07 01:10 PM #10
It's illegal to jaywalk.
SBR Founder Join Date: 12/14/2005
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02-28-07 04:00 PM #11
I believe you can do it legally. But I doubt you can make any money going the legal path.
Even within SBR you will not find "call to action" banners. These type of banners encourage people to bet, promote a bonus, ect. However, like on SBR, you can advertise the brand name of a sportsbook.
The bottomline is that to operate legally you will probably not be able to garner in enough advertisers.1250ptsSBR POKER TOURNEY1st Place 3/31/2012
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02-28-07 07:17 PM #12
The problem is that the actual law doesn't really matter like it should.
The authorities go out and arrest anyone they want to, based on what they (the authorities) think is legal and what isn't.
So the question is not what is legal, but what will get you arrested, and they are not the same.
It looks like doing anything related to online gaming can get you arrested. The bigger you are, the more successful you are at it, and yes the more reputable you are - since this correlates with success - the more likely you are to be arrested.
It should be obvious that the founders of neteller did nothing illegal, yet they were arrested.
If you go around advertising VIP on your t-shirt you probably won't be arrested, but who knows.
If you hire illegal aliens which clearly is illegal you won't get arrested at all, even though you are breaking the law. It is obvious where the illegal aliens are in any town, but the DOJ has no interest at all. Does the law matter? Of course not. What matters is what the dictators like or don't like at the moment.
It doesn't really matter what laws Congress passes or which they do not, who the DOJ feels like arresting is what matters and right now they feel like arresting any and everything that has to do with online gaming.
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