Fresh start in casino affiliate world

[Karol]

Hello,

I would like to start my journey of creating my own casino affiliate website, and I have many questions.

One of the biggest questions I have is about traffic from the USA and other countries.


I have heard from clients that it may be illegal to work with the USA market. Can someone explain this to me or direct me to a resource where I can learn which countries are not regulated or banned for affiliate marketing? And if certain countries are restricted, what are the ways to work around these restrictions?

[Strider1973]

Not all programs accept traffic from all countries. In fact, the list of accepted countries has become much smaller for most affiliate programs.

For the US, you 1) either work with regulated casinos on a state-by-state basis, or 2) you just promote an operator that accepts US traffic and is not regulated. 1) is practically impossible for a one-man show due to all the paperwork and $ required.

[Karol]

Does this mean I have to create geotargeted advertising on my website by IP? In this scenario, I can accept traffic from the USA and redirect visitors to casinos that are legal in their respective states.

However, even with geotargeting, mistakes may occur and some visitors from prohibited states may be redirected to casinos that do not have a license in their state. Would I be held legally responsible in this situation, or would the casino simply reject these clients?

[chaumi]

You'll find a lot of affiliate info here...

https://www.bettingusa.com/affiliate/

Belongs to a member here. I don't know date last updated and some bits may have changed (indeed, there is a note on it stating "Note: this page is undergoing a significant upgrade. Stay tuned for updated information.") So probably there is new info. But it'll likely at least give you a good base to start from and ask questions.

[gainfin]

Hi Karol,

Our company doesn't build affiliate websites. We simply buy domain names with existing gambling traffic already going to them and forward that traffic to different affiliate landing pages. We have no clue from where the traffic comes because it's just people all around the world typing in the domain name into their browser windows. We can point that existing traffic to any affiliate landing page we want. It's really up to the gambling operator to determine the geography of the traffic to decide whether or not they as an operator are licensed to service that traffic as customers. Even for U.S. licensed operators you can see – e.g., BetMGM.com – that they ask up front from which state each visitor is from. So, send whatever traffic you can to the gambling operators and let them sort it all out.

Note: to be accepted into BetMGM's affiliate program, you as an affiliate marketer have to be licensed in each U.S. state to which you want to drive business for BetMGM brands. The traffic can be from all over the world but you're only going to be compensated as an affiliate if the conversions are from the legal U.S. states and you as an affiliate marketer are licensed in those states.

[Karri]

Does this mean I have to create geotargeted advertising on my website by IP? In this scenario, I can accept traffic from the USA and redirect visitors to casinos that are legal in their respective states.

However, even with geotargeting, mistakes may occur and some visitors from prohibited states may be redirected to casinos that do not have a license in their state. Would I be held legally responsible in this situation, or would the casino simply reject these clients?

That depends on where you, the casino, the affiliate program, and your site is. For example, in Finland there is a state monopoly with laws in place that forbid all sorts of marketing. However, Finnish authorities cannot stop casinos that operate with a Maltese licence from accepting Finnish players (similarly, there is a state monopoly on alcohol, which however cannot stop people ordering from abroad). Neither can they go an arrest or fine an affiliate marketer who lives in another country, and adheres to the laws of those countries. Obviously, if you again host your site outside of Finland, they don't really have anything to complain about.

Traditionally, that has been the case for casinos with Curacao licence accepting US players. Unless you live in the states, and host your websites from there, it shouldn't be an issue.

...but, with more and more states and countries enacting their own legistlation, things are slowly changing. reputable casinos are not risking it with national bodies anymore. Especially as they have grown to become multinational conglomerates themselves. In case of Finland, a year or so back they approved some new laws that would allow banning financial transactions. Not that they've done anything about that, but plenty of affiliates and online casinos panicked. Some removed Finnish language entirely, others simply said not to use "local lingo".

In all fairness, the time for one man affiliate teams is long gone.

[edgarf76]

Those are legal questions. It may be best to hire a corporate attorney and get everything sorted. Good luck.

[Pokerface]

I would well research everything before getting too involved in US market. There are many legal questions/concerns. You may want to consider starting with another market, ie Canada, and once the dust has settled in the US venture into that market.

[nivlac10]

It's better to start your first project on some other more regulated or "casino-friendly" market.

I wouldn't suggest people to start by doing US as there are too many legal concerns as well as restrictions.