In the United States, gambling is restricted almost everywhere, except in Las Vegas and in Atlantic City, New Jersey. If you do not know this and unwittingly participated in a gambling scheme that turned out to be illegal, you can still be charged with a gambling crime and may be slapped with significant penalties that may result in some serious repercussions. In these kinds of scenarios, knowing your rights and the gambling laws of your state can spell the difference between a safe trip home and a one-way ticket to prison.
Gambling in the Federal Workplace. Federal rules on gambling prohibit employees from gambling while on duty, or while on government-owned or leased property, unless necessitated by their official duties. These restrictions apply not only to Federal employees, but also to members of the public at large, contractors, vendors.
The laws related to gambling are not only important for those involved in the industry operating such games like poker, bingo, and other casino-type games, but also for all those regular Joes who want to know whether he or she can start a fantasy football league, a home poker game, or an NCAA tournament betting pool at the workplace.
The words “gamble” and “gambling” are generally used to discuss an activity that may run afoul of applicable criminal laws. The word “gaming” is usually reserved for those instances where the activity has been specifically legalized by applicable laws or where the activity is exempted from the criminal laws. Thus, playing a casino-style game at a for-profit website online in the United States is referred to as gambling, since no state has yet to finalize any gambling law that specifically authorizes a for-profit website operator to offer any casino games.
The two words are not mutually exclusive. That is, a gaming activity could turn out to be gambling where applicable laws regulating that particular gaming are violated. Similarly, a gambling activity may turn out to be gaming if it is exempted from a given criminal statute. For example, playing a card game for money in a purely social setting where no one earns anything from the game other than as a mere player would be gaming if such social games were excluded from the reach of the criminal anti-gambling laws in the state where the game takes place.
The Spread of Legalized US Gambling
Decades ago, gambling used to be illegal almost in every part of the continental US, again, except for Nevada and New Jersey. However, as time flew by, more and more states have made various types of gambling legal, ranging from Indian casinos, bingo and poker rooms, off-track horse race betting, and more. While some states have approved certain types of gambling, there are other types that have remained “illegal”, so to speak, like online gambling. In fact, almost all states have laws that ban at least some form of gambling.
Gaming and gambling in the United States have undergone a great boom. During the past decade, most states have expanded legalized gaming, including regulated casino-style games and lotteries. There has been an explosion in opening Native American casinos. The popularity of online gambling and betting has increased exponentially.
Online Gambling in the USA
Online gambling has been more stringently regulated by the US government. Some of the federal laws that encompass online gambling include the Federal Act Wire of 1961 and the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) of 2006. The former outlaws interstate wagering on sports but fails to address the other forms of gambling. The latter did not specifically ban online gaming, however, it disallowed US-based payment processors from participating in any financial transactions involving online gaming services. These rigid regulations made most online gaming operators decide to move their businesses offshore where they can be left untouched by US federal laws.
It may seem that the United States has been very slow when it comes to reacting to online gambling. In fact, when online gambling sites started appearing in the early ‘90s, there were not even any legal guidelines set in place to regulate the operations of these sites, even though their services are easily accessed by US-based players. Free card and slots no registration no download.
This, however, changed in the year 2006, when then-US President George Bush signed the Safe Ports Act – a law that had a section that made it illegal for US banking institutions to allow their customers to send money to gambling sites offshore.
The fact is, before 2006, any US resident could quite easily gamble online for real money by using any of their US-issued debit or credit cards to fund their accounts. Then again, when the aforementioned law took effect on that year, all US banking institutions were legally required to block all these types of payments, making it extremely difficult for US-based players to fund their online gaming bankroll.
As the years have gone by, many US States have started to look at online gambling sites, and several of them have placed their own robust sets of regulations that will allow gambling sites located in certain US states to operate legally after applying for and being granted a gambling license, but only within state boundaries.
There are still a lot of websites offering casino-type games that are located offshore that accommodate US-based players, though. However, sending and requesting money from those sites might take some time and in doing such, players are encouraged to exercise extra vigilance in checking where the gambling site of their choosing is licensed and regulated before they start playing, because they will have very little protection should they encounter any kind of issues or problems with an unlicensed and offshore gambling website.
Las Vegas casinos and sports books are feeling like they're on the wrong end of a double-standard.
Think wagering $20 to win $1 million by picking a winning combination of NFL players for a fantasy team this Sunday is gambling? The league says it isn't.
So do fast-growing daily fantasy sports companies like DraftKings and FanDuel that offer the games and advertise with the long gambling-adverse pro football organization.
But as the lucrative NFL betting season ramps up and advertisements from DraftKings and FanDuel are as hard to miss as an extra point, Las Vegas casinos and sports books are feeling like they're on the wrong end of a double-standard. Traditional sports betting is barred outside a handful of states, including Nevada, but daily fantasy sports is allowed in most of the United States.
Seizing on the disparity, traditional casino operators and sports books are calling for traditional sports betting to be given the same respect.
'Let's just call it what it is. Americans love to bet on sports,' said Joe Asher, chief executive of sports book William Hill's U.S. operations. 'They both drive interest in the games and they both should be legal, and taxed and regulated.'
The fantasy industry says it's already legal and has no interest in being regulated if it comes with a 'gambling' label. Even the traditional casino companies and regulators have eschewed the word 'gambling' until recently, opting for the more antiseptic 'gaming' instead to describe what they do.
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Daily fantasy sports and its defenders point to a 2006 law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, that carved out a specific exemption for 'fantasy sports' well before the concept of daily games versus week-long or season-long were contemplated. Before the rise of daily fantasy sports, the exception was mostly used by top season-long fantasy operators like Yahoo and CBS Sports.
Illegal Gambling Definition
'Thanks to fantasy sports being specifically excluded from laws affecting online sports betting, FanDuel is not illegal in any way. Trust us, our lawyers drive very nice cars so that we can keep it that way,' FanDuel says on its website as its short answer for the frequently asked question, 'Is FanDuel Legal?'
Fanduel's long answer is more complicated, noting it doesn't operate in several states where its legality is not as clear.
Some regulators and legal analysts have been skeptical of that reasoning because of state laws governing gambling. That's left casinos on the sidelines, wanting to get involved or support fantasy sports but unwilling to invest or risk billions in revenues that come with highly-regulated casino-resorts. New Jersey regulators even gave the go-ahead to licensed casinos to operate their own daily fantasy sports games two years ago, but no one has done it.
'The exception doesn't necessarily get (fantasy sports companies) to where they say it does,' said A.G. Burnett, Nevada's top gambling regulator, who is working with the state's attorney general to weigh the industry's legality.
The federal law applies to processing payments for online gambling to curb online sports betting and, to that end, allows fantasy sports companies to process transactions. But Burnett said it doesn't pre-empt other laws.
'If a state says fantasy sports is illegal .. the fantasy companies cannot use (the act) as a get out of jail card because it quite simply doesn't apply,' he said.
So far, there have been no prosecutions challenging the sites' abilities to legally operate.
FanDuel and DraftKings responded in a joint statement Saturday affirming their belief that they don't offer 'gambling.'
'We are speaking with gaming industry representatives to educate them on the fantasy sports industry as our products are games of skill; fundamentally separate from, and not competitive with casinos and gaming businesses,' the statement said.
Illegal Gambling Under Federal Law
John McManus, general counsel for MGM Resorts International, said the company that owns several casinos on the Las Vegas Strip has a similar position on fantasy sports as it does with all forms of gambling.
'It is not in the interests of consumers that established gaming companies, which are fully licensed and regulated, are the only market participants that cannot engage in the business,' he said.
No one wants daily fantasy to be shut down akin to prohibition or the likes of Internet poker several years ago, said Daniel Wallach, a gambling and sports attorney based in Florida.
'This is something that everybody partakes in,' said Wallach, a sports betting panelist at the upcoming Global Gaming Expo convention in Las Vegas, the top yearly casino industry conference. 'It would not be a popular thing to prosecute.'
Mario games online free play no download. Traditional gambling companies, though, don't want to risk lucrative gambling licenses by dipping their toes in the fantasy pool, Wallach said.
What Makes Gambling Illegal
The debate about 'gambling' versus 'gaming' often centers on chance versus skill.
'It's more skill than luck,' said Peter Schoenke, chairman of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and founder of Rotowire.com, a fantasy sports news website. 'You win by making good decisions about players. You have to do a whole bunch of work to play the game, let alone win.'
'Daily fantasy is considered a game of skill and not gambling,' said Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL when asked why it's different than traditional sports betting.
Gambling Illegal Under Federal Law California
That reasoning doesn't necessarily fly with Las Vegas sports books.
'What we're doing is a game of skill, too,' said Johnny Avello, the longtime sports book director at the Wynn Las Vegas. Avello is trying out his own twist on fantasy sports betting on Sunday -- bettors can choose between the better of two fantasy teams he's hand-picked. Best free online casino games.
--Associated Press
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