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Prosecution Deterring Illegal Gambling

The United States government, and more specifically the US Department of Justice, has spent the past three years aggressively cracking down on the prevalence of illegal offshore online casino gambling occurring in the US. The industry was officially made illegal in late 2006 and it didn’t take long before the US DoJ was out for money by pointing fingers and prosecuting the offshore internet gambling for their activity within the US market. The first notable prosecution involved NETeller, previously one of the largest e-wallets used by the online casinos to fund bank accounts and withdraw player funds. The US DoJ made an example of NETeller and was supposed to work as a warning of sorts to the other internet gambling companies that were continuing to operate in the US market despite the UIGEA.

The real question is though, did it curb the amount of illegal online casino gambling occurring in the US? And the answer is yes – but not nearly to the intended extent. Once NETeller was forced to pay roughly $40 million in fines several other payment processors chose to step out of the US market along with a handful of prominent online casinos. The decision may have been a bit too late though considering companies like Party Gaming were still targeted by the DoJ and forced to negotiate a settled fee to avoid formal prosecution.

The real bulk of the issue though comes down to the fact that the online casinos that left the market were the more scrupulous and reputable gambling sites. The UIGEA and DoJ prosecution threats have not deterred all of the gambling sites and there are a lot of smaller gambling companies taking advantage of a gambling free-for-all of sorts in the US market because the UIGEA is having a hard time enforcing regulations and prosecuting the smaller offshore gambling companies.