Legal Online Gambling In Hawaii - Hawaiians will have no choice for gambling outside of the Legal Online Gambling in Hawaii. All forms of gambling are readily available, however. Legal Online Gambling In Idaho - Idaho has no restrictions on the prospect of legal online gambling. Online Gambling Don’t Roll the Dice. 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. Nearly all US state residents, except those from Washington or Connecticut, can legally access licensed offshore online gambling platforms to play online casino games, enter online poker tournaments,.

When Bitcoin first came into the picture of digital currency, few people understood it. As its popularity has grown, more and more people still have questions about it. Many people question its legalities, especially when it comes to gambling in the USA. Bitcoin Gambling have covered this in detail, as well as individual casino reviews such as Safedice and Yolodice. Read on for more.

Bitcoin Legalities in the USA

With media stories and coverage, it’s hard to understand the rules and regulations governing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Amidst all the confusion surrounding the use of Bitcoin, at least it is a recognized tender in the United States. However, it is illegal to use Bitcoin to purchase black market goods such as drugs.

More to this, your Bitcoin account could risk closure if you buy legal goods from websites known to sell illegal goods too. This shows that as much as it is an accepted tender, it is still under strict regulations on where to use it.

When it comes to gambling, the story is different. This is because current regulations in the United States do not specifically say that Bitcoin is illegal. That means that Bitcoin casinos are not entirely restricted, but they are not clean either. Surprisingly, some states classify gambling as illegal regardless of whether Bitcoin is involved or not.

States that have legalized gambling make millions of dollars from the legalized casinos. This is because they get a cut from websites that choose to use Bitcoin as a betting option. This is a win-win situation for the states and the Bitcoin users too. However, the process is pretty complicated, not forgetting the age restriction in place as far as gambling in the US is concerned.

Why Bitcoin Gambling

Gambling, for a very long time, has been known to be tedious and complicated. With Bitcoin gambling, the process is easier and straightforward. Under the current regulations, you only need to deposit money from your bank account or debit card and register with your government card to gamble. This is only for the legalized states in the USA.

Some gambling websites only allow cashouts in person and only at specified locations in specific cities. Bitcoin bypasses all these processes. If you have some, you just need to send it to the website wallet, and your money is credited to your account in a short time. This depends on the speed of the website.

The same case applies to cashing out. You do not need to drive to a cashout point to get your money. You just request a withdrawal, and the money goes back to your wallet. More to this, Bitcoin allows you to stay anonymous if you prefer to stay private while gambling. You just need to choose a username or get one at random.

With these benefits, regulating bitcoin gambling becomes challenging, not forgetting how hard it can be to track these websites. This is why some states save themselves the hassle and prohibit Bitcoin gambling as a whole.

US States where Bitcoin Gambling is Illegal

Bitcoin is not illegal in most US states. But, there are some states where things are not as simple when it comes to Bitcoin gambling. Therefore, it is important to check if the state you are in allows Bitcoin gambling; otherwise, you risk losses. Here are the states where Bitcoin gambling is illegal.

California

In California, the use of Bitcoin is not entirely illegal or prohibited. But, there are constant attempts to regulate Bitcoin in California. In fact, setting up a business that would benefit from cryptocurrencies is much more expensive than other states. This is to discourage any business promoting the use of cryptocurrencies, including online gambling sites

Connecticut

If you are planning to start any business in Connecticut, you will need to acquire a license first before accepting and storing Bitcoin. Without this, you can face some serious fine that you can avoid in the first place. While players in Connecticut can gamble online using Bitcoin, not many entrepreneurs are willing to open a Connecticut-based casino.

New Hampshire

All matters regarding Bitcoin are hard in this state. It is hard not only for casino owners but also for gamblers and those who want to use Bitcoin for anything in New Hampshire. You will need to obtain a special license to transfer any crypto coins. As if that is not enough, the state government plans on making it tougher to use Bitcoin in the state.

Wisconsin

Any company in Wisconsin requires a money transmitter’s license. However, if the company performs any transaction with cryptocurrency, the license will be canceled by the state. There are no clear laws governing Bitcoin use, but this license cancellation is a sign that Wisconsin is not Bitcoin-friendly.

Most states in the US have legalized the use of Bitcoin, but a few still have rules to regulate how and where Bitcoin applies.

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Illegal Sports Betting

How Offshore Operators – and Those Who Support Them – Break U.S. Law

For decades, state-regulated brick and mortar sportsbooks in Nevada offered the only legal sports betting in the U.S. However, with the advent of the internet, illegal bookies have taken advantage of lax or even non-existent laws in places like Antigua, Costa Rica, Latvia, and Panama to set up online sportsbooks that target American customers. These sportsbooks are illegal in the United States and prey on unsuspecting Americans, despite claims of regulation and licensure in their home countries. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Murphy v. NCAA and nearly half of the states legalizing sports betting, these unscrupulous operators continue to take advantage of the unsuspecting public.

Sports betting, like all other forms of gambling, is highly regulated at the state level. Each state in the country can decide if and to what extent it will permit gambling. Since the decision in Murphy v. NCAA, 22 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized sports betting. Each of these states have established rigorous licensing regimes to ensure game integrity and consumer safety. Sportsbooks and bookies that offer sports betting outside of these licensing regimes – whether in person or online – are illegal.

Federal law makes it a crime to participate in the business of illegal gambling. There are a variety of statutes that make it illegal to operate or participate in financial transactions related to an unlicensed sportsbook in the United States, including the Wire Act, the Illegal Gambling Business Act, the Travel Act, and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.^[i] Beyond federal statutes aimed specifically at gambling, a variety of broader criminal laws targeting organized crime have also been the basis for prosecution of offshore gambling rings.^[ii]

The threat of federal prosecution is not hypothetical. Prosecutors have been successfully pursuing cases against offshore operators for two decades. The first ever prosecution of an offshore book came in 2000 against Jay Cohen, founder of the Antigua-based World Sports Exchange. A jury found Cohen guilty of several violations of the Wire Act, for which he was sentenced to two years in jail.^[iii] In another case, the federal government charged 57 individuals with operating an illegal gambling business, racketeering, and money laundering in connection with their Panama-based sportsbook.^[iv] The trials continued for many years, resulting in convictions, fines, and other sanctions.

Another high-profile case from the Southern District of New York illustrates the far-reaching impacts of illegal sports betting. In 2016, the U.S. Attorney charged and prosecuted 46 leaders of several organized crime families with everything from assault, extortion, and gun trafficking, to loansharking and illegal gambling.^[v] The sports betting charges stemmed from the defendants’ use of online, illegal sportsbooks based in the United States and abroad to enrich the crime families.

Federal prosecution is not limited to the operators themselves. The Department of Justice has warned that media outlets that accept advertising dollars from these illegal operators could be liable for aiding and abetting criminal activity.^[vi] Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo entered into a $31.5 million settlement with the federal government in relation to their promotion of illegal, offshore gambling in 2009.^[vii] The Sporting News, one of the oldest sporting outlets in the country, entered into a $7.2 million settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve accusations stemming from accepting advertising from offshore gaming outlets.^[viii] Even short of criminal prosecution, media outlets may be subject to seizure of funds or subpoenas as part of related prosecutions or investigations.

While federal law is abundantly clear on the illegality of such operations, these books and even the media, often claim it is not illegal for the consumer to use offshore sites. While it is true that no federal law targets bettors using offshore books, many states have laws that make using these books illegal. Many of the 28 states with no legalized sports betting expressly make it illegal for consumers to wager on sports in any form, including via offshore operations.^[ix] And several states that have legalized sports betting specify that consumers should only engage in such activity through a legal, regulated sportsbook. For example, it is illegal in Nevada and Michigan to place a wager with a sportsbook that is not authorized to operate in the state.^[x] It is also, of course, illegal for a sportsbook to operate without proper licensure and regulatory oversight in any state with legalized sports betting.

Beyond being illegal, these offshore operations also fail to provide any meaningful consumer protection. While legal, regulated sportsbooks uphold key principles of responsible gaming, protection of consumer funds, data privacy, and more, offshore books do nothing to protect their patrons. In fact, should a consumer find themselves at odds with their offshore bookie (not being able to withdraw their funds or disagreeing with how a bet was settled, for example), there is no one the consumer can turn to for help. Further, should the federal government initiate a proceeding against any of these offshore books, customers might lose their money on deposit with the book with little to no recourse. These illegal operators also avoid contributing state and local taxes to U.S. communities.

Why Is Gambling Illegal

Offshore sportsbooks violate federal and state laws in targeting U.S.-based consumers. Worse yet, they take advantage of confusion and uncertainty to entice consumers to use their illegal sites. For many consumers, they only realize the dangers in using these sites when it is too late – when they have a complaint or a problem, but no recourse to resolve it. Only when all sectors of the sports betting ecosystem work together – the operators, the suppliers, the media, the regulators – can we ensure customers can easily find and use safe, legal, and regulated sports betting sites.

Citations

^[i] The Wire Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1084; Illegal Gambling Business Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1955; Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 5361–5366.

^[ii]E.g. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956, 1957 (relating to money laundering).

^[iii]United States v. Cohen, 260 F.3d 68 (2d Cir. 2001); see alsoMan Jailed in 1st U.S. Online Gambling Conviction, Reuters, Aug. 11, 2000, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/11gambling.html.

^[iv]Fifty-Seven Charged with Operating Illegal Online Sports Gaming Business, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Apr. 10, 2013, https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdok/pr/fifty-seven-charged-operating-illegal-online-sports-gaming-business.

^[v]Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges 46 Leaders, Members, and Associates of Several Organized Crime Families of La Costa Nostra with Wide-Ranging Racketeering Charges, U.S. Dept. of Justices, Aug. 4, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-charges-46-leaders-members-and-associates-several-organized-crime.

^[vi]See Letter from John G. Malcom, Deputy Assistant Att’y Gen. to Nat’l Ass’n of Broadcasters, June 11, 2003, available at commlawcenter.com/files/2014/02/NAB_letter-030611.pdf.

^[vii] Jason Ryan, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo to Pay $31.5M Over Illegal Gambling Ads, ABC News, Jan. 8, 2009, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/FedCrimes/story?id=4029545&page=1.

^[viii] Matt Richtel, Sporting News Settles Case on Gambling Ads, N.Y. Times, Jan. 21, 2006, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/business/media/sporting-news-settles-case-on-gambling-ads.html.

States With Legal Internet Gambling

^[ix]See, e.g., Ga. Code Ann. § 16-12-21; Tex. Penal Code § 47.02; Wis. Stat. Ann. § 945.02

^[x]See Nev. Rev. Stat. 465.093; Mich. Comp. L. § 750.310e.