Is Online Betting Legal?

Is Online Betting Legal

Just like in social media, this is a rather difficult question to answer, if Online Gambling Legislation had a Facebook Profile, the relationship status would be: It’s complicated!

Unfortunately, the issue of online gambling legality is rarely black and white; like everything in life, it's a spectrum.

Starting with the US. There is no U.S. federal law against gambling online. On the federal level, gambling online is perfectly legal, because of the lack of a law against it. It's possible to run afoul of state law (especially in extremely conservative states), but even there prosecution is extremely rare.
The easy countries are those that have an outright ban on online gambling.
The US, Turkey, the Netherlands and China are examples of these.

On the hand there are countries that have a fully regulated online gambling system in place. This system will include the establishment of a licensing authority, publication of the requirements and procedures around obtaining such a license, tax scheme, KYC and AML requirements, pay-in and pay-out rules (aka "closed-loop"), and auditing requirements. The UK, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Isle of Man, Australia, Malta, Gibraltar and more recently Belgium are in this group.

Slightly more complicated are the countries that only allow online gambling with their government-owned monopoly, like Portugal or Norway. Other countries do the same thing but are less forthright about it; they don't talk about a "ban" as such, they just say you're only allowed to gamble with companies that have a license to offer such services in that country, and then they don't issue any licenses (Greece, we’re talking about you).

More complicated still are the countries where there is a federal ban but state-level permission; In the US New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have legalized some online gambling. This list will probably be enlarged, as there are bills in many other states currently being introduced. Germany has Schleswig-Holstein.  If you want to play here, you better lawyer up real good, partner.

Analogous to the US's federal and state inconsistencies is the relationship European countries have with the EU. Theoretically, the common-market dream of the EU should mean that a gambling license in one EU state would be valid in all EU states; but just try to open an Italian online gambling company on the back of a French license.

Then there are countries that have pretty thorough gambling legislation, but the laws don't call out anything specific regarding online gambling.

The legislative landscape around online gambling is constantly moving, not to mention the game-specific laws (poker vs. sports betting vs. betting exchange).

When doing business with a PPH like us, our customers are advised to seek counsel as to determine if using our services is legal in your area and under what conditions. If you feel that you need a company with official license for you to do business, we can assist you with this as well. We have helped set-up companies in 3 different gaming jurisdictions. Try our superior Pay Per Head Service? Sign Up Today and Get 2 Weeks Free.