Online Gambling Loopholes Around the World
Online gambling is a widespread phenomenon, with thousands of operators and millions of people all over the world. And you should take this literally – even in countries where gambling is illegal. This is possible due to a series of loopholes in the often outdated laws applicable to gambling, and the relatively recent spread of the Internet gambling and betting phenomenon. Thanks to these loopholes, gamblers can access wildjackcasino.com and other gaming venues to place real money bets. Most of the times, the applicable laws prohibit the operation and promotion of online gambling services in certain countries – the above-mentioned Wild Jack, for example, can never obtain a license and promote its services in India. Yet, through some relatively simple procedures, these restrictions can be circumvented by the players, giving them the possibility to play at the Wild Jack or basically any other international operator willing to accept their bets.
India
The central law in India that prohibits gambling is the Public Gambling Act of 1867. Given its age, this law has no way of covering internet gambling – or the internet as a whole, for that matter. Later, a series of other acts have been pushed through, often marginally touching the question of gambling, yet there is still just one piece of legislation directly related to the matter – the Bombay Wager Act – that declares online gambling a punishable offence in Maharashtra.
Otherwise, online gambling by individuals has not been banned <em>per se</em>, yet the government has done what it could to make it difficult for Indian punters to fund their offshore accounts. Yet, as always, players have found a way to circumvent this issue.
Canada
Canada has one of the most ambiguous online gambling markets in the world. Even though it’s home to one of the biggest gambling companies of the globe, PokerStars owner Amaya Inc., the state has a monopoly on running online casinos and poker rooms. And it fails to do so in most of its territories – only three state-owned lottery companies offer such services to their players, and only in their respective territories. This leaves Canadian players with no means to legally play their favourite games online, yet with no explicit ban on playing offshore. And many of them do – international online casinos like the above-mentioned Wild Jack are quite popular among Canadian players.
Australia
Australia is known to be a country with many pokies (slot machines) fans. Yet they can’t play their favourite games online at a local operator since running such services from Australia is illegal. Again, no specific ban has been issued related to playing at offshore operators, which makes the situation similar to Canada. To make things more interesting, online sports betting is legal in Australia, but in-game bets can only be placed via telephone calls, not through the internet.
While Australia is planning to amend its gambling laws, it doesn’t plan to make casinos and poker rooms legal – instead, it plans to crack down on international operators that accept Canadian players.
US
In the US, it’s the states’ prerogative to decide whether they want to regulate or ban online gambling. Yet just a handful of states have acted on this liberty – Nevada and Delaware has legalised online poker, and New Jersey did too, along with online casinos. The rest of the states have been discussing the matter for years now, with no real progress made on it so far. At the same time, it’s an open secret that there are offshore casino operators that accept US-based players among their users.
A blanket ban on all forms of online gambling has been forwarded by several Republican politicians last year, yet the initiative failed to become a law. Now, that the Republican Party has control of the legislative force, things might become interesting for the US online gambling market.
By Lihet Octavian
