Affilite sites vs US crazyness

[StevenC]

Does anybody know, what the point of view is of the US (DEpartment of Justice), regarding affiliate sites?
So sites which are on a US ip, and feed US players to the US casino rooms.

Is this also punishable by the new laws?

If so what are then good steps to take?

best
S.

[MJM]

US market was not really my focus, but I have taken some steps such as removing all US flags and references to "US sites" and beefed up disclaimers including adding a section that specifically states we do not want US visitors on our site.

IMO it's a very real possibility affiliates could get caught up in this mess, at the very least a lot of us can expect to be audited. One thing is clear, it's now definately illegal to promote to US players, period.

[GamTrak]

I'm NOT taking any chances and purchased a .co.uk site yesterday. While they are not openly going after affiliates that does not mean we are exempt. My plan is to move away from anything involving providing access to online gambling to US players.

I like my freedom to do as I please to much to keep taking a chance. lol

[xecutable]

To get your question answered as well as a few more be sure to check CAP's Webinar on this link: http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.c...eaming-online/ . Legal experts I. Nelson Rose and Lawrence Walters took their time to answer a lot of questions, pretty sure everyone will find it useful and well informing about the whole situation and affiliates.

[diceman]

For one I am making a first step in removing any and all info regarding american players and casinos. IMO I could for sure see them going after some of the big dogs out there... especially those that have setup offshore stuff and so on . I would think some of the big dogs might have their hands a bit to deep into the jar.

[GamTrak]

To get your question answered as well as a few more be sure to check CAP's Webinar on this link: http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.c...eaming-online/ . Legal experts I. Nelson Rose and Lawrence Walters took their time to answer a lot of questions, pretty sure everyone will find it useful and well informing about the whole situation and affiliates.

I'm sorry, but statements like this should not be made as they don't have knowledge of what the DOJ can or will do. They just want the chance to fight it out in court and take your money doing it. Hell they (the DOJ) can make up laws on the spot and make them retro-active if they want. lol

Bottom line is that it's ILLEGAL to provide online gambling to a US citizen. IMO anyone that THINK they can escape the DOJ is crazy.

They also provided casino affiliate marketers with advice on how affiliates can set up their business in a way that legally protects them from the threat of the unknown -- further prosecutions from the U.S. Department of Justice.

[boczom1]

For one I am making a first step in removing any and all info regarding american players and casinos.

same here...It was a hard decision, but we added -

** U.S. Online Gambling is currently illegal. Only click on the links below if online gambling is legal in your country. **

to the top of our site.

who knows if it even matters or not...

all that's done is linking to other sites anyway..

Bottom line is that it's ILLEGAL to provide online gambling to a US citizen. IMO anyone that THINK they can escape the DOJ is crazy.

heck, you could put an online casino affiliate link on your friggin Facebook page & get paid the same way doing that...by not even owning a site. Will DOJ come after them as well ? I think we're gettin a little too paranoid.

We were told all our customers were non-US.... Which is the reason why were barely making a buck these days anyhow.

what's next, FBI seizes GPWA ? geez..

[mojo]

I'm NOT taking any chances and purchased a .co.uk site yesterday. While they are not openly going after affiliates that does not mean we are exempt. My plan is to move away from anything involving providing access to online gambling to US players.

I like my freedom to do as I please to much to keep taking a chance. lol

This may be a dumb question but I think I remember reading somewhere that .co.uk sites supposed to only promote White List programs due to the UK Gambling Act? I do have some co.uk domains but wasn't sure of the legalities exactly.

[GamTrak]

This may be a dumb question but I think I remember reading somewhere that .co.uk sites supposed to only promote White List programs due to the UK Gambling Act? I do have some co.uk domains but wasn't sure of the legalities exactly.

I'm not sure as I've never considered having a UK website, but I'm going to be with the regulation no matter what it is.

Hey boczor1, I may be paranoid, but atleast I'll be able to sleep better at night knowing that I"m getting out now before my paranoia becomes reality.

[Jamie - RateMyCasino]

What about dot net domains.... would they be better than dot come?

[arkyt]

US crazyness hmmmmm

You know what? We affiliates do a pretty good job of calling attention to rogue casinos / programs etc and can get linked up and get those things to the top of Google rather quickly. Maybe its time we all come together and get this USA "rogue" oppression to the top of the engines and start to fight back in a way that we know we can.

[Jamie - RateMyCasino]

US crazyness hmmmmm

You know what? We affiliates do a pretty good job of calling attention to rogue casinos / programs etc and can get linked up and get those things to the top of Google rather quickly. Maybe its time we all come together and get this USA "rogue" oppression to the top of the engines and start to fight back in a way that we know we can.

Good Idea

[TheCanadianGambler]

Is it actually illegal to promote to US players?

From what I understand, they are going after these casinos because they lied to and bribed banks to process payments. The fact that we, as affiliates, don't take any wagers or do any kind of payment processing, should mean that we and our .com sites are fine.

If an affiliate site only promotes US facing brands, and they all get shut down, there really is no point going after the affiliate then.

Kinda similar example: I was into getting free satellite TV for quite a while, and many people were always paranoid that they would get busted. The Feds went on a tilt and charged a bunch of people, but only the ones providing the services and receivers, never someone that was just watching free TV. After they took down all the big players, there was no point going after individuals, because they could no longer watch free TV anyway.

I'm fairly confident that it will be the same situation here. Realistically, it would cost them too much to go after affiliates, and they wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the amount of money that they can from the casinos themselves.

Taking out the casinos ends up in a big payout for them, and also takes care of everything else (affiliates) that need those casinos to survive, without them having to spend the money and resources to go after all the "little guys".

That being said, it seems the FBI and DOJ are capable of anything, so if making your site "Anti-US" makes you feel better, I won't try to stop you.

[Buddy M]

Hell, I just might shut down for a few months and see what the industry looks like come August. June and July are my two worst months anyway. I gotta think about this one.

[boczom1]

That being said, it seems the FBI and DOJ are capable of anything, so if making your site "Anti-US" makes you feel better, I won't try to stop you.

coming from the guy living cozily in Canada...

[TheCanadianGambler]

coming from the guy living cozily in Canada...

With a .com hosted in the US.

[faulkwood]

I take it Bodog and some other sites that historically took US players are changing over to .eu domains in an effort to keep their domains protected from potentially being seized. I noticed the change in links when I logged into some of my affiliate accounts (not just Bodog).

[xecutable]

I'm sorry, but statements like this should not be made as they don't have knowledge of what the DOJ can or will do. They just want the chance to fight it out in court and take your money doing it. Hell they (the DOJ) can make up laws on the spot and make them retro-active if they want. lol

Bottom line is that it's ILLEGAL to provide online gambling to a US citizen. IMO anyone that THINK they can escape the DOJ is crazy.

Given that CAP posted it in their Blog section for everyone to listen to it, and usually refer to such questions with the exact same link, I am guessing the video had an educational purpose, rather than a self-promoting, misleading one.

Nevertheless it wouldn't hurt to know one more opinion especially from people who are in the justice system. Their claims might have been farfetched as you said it, but they did give exact answers to why it's illegal.

[faulkwood]

Given that CAP posted it in their Blog section for everyone to listen to it, and usually refer to such questions with the exact same link, I am guessing the video had an educational purpose, rather than a self-promoting, misleading one.

Nevertheless it wouldn't hurt to know one more opinion especially from people who are in the justice system. Their claims might have been farfetched as you said it, but they did give exact answers to why it's illegal.

I watched the entire video last night and found it informative. In the end, after consideration, I decided to leave casinos on my site that accept US players but did not highlight them as such. A person can go to the casino site and find out for themselves. No US flags, no banners noting they accept US players, no special usa casino pages or posts.

[baldidiot]

This may be a dumb question but I think I remember reading somewhere that .co.uk sites supposed to only promote White List programs due to the UK Gambling Act? I do have some co.uk domains but wasn't sure of the legalities exactly.

I consulted a lawyer about the gambling act a while ago. In very brief terms the gambling act prohibits linking to non white listed sites IF your site is made available to UK traffic, where UK traffic is defined as one or more persons from the UK. However it also states that the rule is not enforced outside of the UK.

That being said, I'm not sure if having a .co.uk or UK IP address counts as being "within the UK" or if you/your company have to be physically in the UK - this would be another question for the lawyers... There are plenty of UK based affiliates who ignore this rule though, and as far as I know there haven't been any repurcussions (yet). The ASA (advertising standards agency) now have the power to police the UK internet, although they tend to slap people on the wrist and tell them not to do it again.

Personally I comply 100% with the act - but this is because my company has it's fingers in some mainstream pies and I don't want my igaming sites to come and bite me in the ass!