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Legalities of Online Casinos

We’ve covered this before at GambleCraft, but it is always beneficial to outline once again the state of the US online casino gambling industry. The question many internet gamblers have centers on whether gambling at the online casinos and poker sites is illegal in the US for the actually players – and it’s hard to say just a yes or a no. On the federal level, it is not illegal for US citizens to gamble at the internet casinos; it is actually only illegal for the banks and financial services companies to process the transactions between US gamblers and offshore internet gambling companies.

The UGIEA is a very interesting piece of legislation that has some nuances and inconsistencies that make it a bit hard to give hard and fast rules. One of the sticky points in the debate over the UGIEA is the precise definition of “illegal internet gambling,” a term that is never defined but used liberally throughout the act. The foreign online casinos have been given few guidelines and for that reason many offshore sites continue to operate in the US market – they just use an often convoluted payment system as a way to accept US players.

Beyond the federal level though there is the issue of online casino gambling at a state level. Several states have specific legislation in place that bans their state residents from gambling through the internet. Washington State has some of the harshest laws in the country and online gambling is actually a felony offense in the state. Other states have differing legislation in place and it is also prudent for new gamblers to carefully research the restrictions and laws in place in their home state.