When it comes to illegal online gambling, there are different methods of doing so, and there are also different levels of punishment that may be meted out if you get caught participating in one of these illegal gambling operations.
In the USA, online gambling is regulated by three main federal laws. There’s the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), The Wire Act, and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). UIGEA is a recent addition to the law that regulates financial transactions.
What Are The Legal Consequences Of Engaging In Illegal Online Gambling?
If you are found to be an operator of an illegal gambling operation, then you’re likely to be looking at doing some jail time. This is considered a federal crime, so it would fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI. The bureau often works in partnership with other organizations such as United States Marshals, Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and state gaming commissions to investigate and ultimately shut down any illegal gambling in the USA.
Persons caught and convicted of operating an illegal gambling house could be facing seizure of funds earned from the gambling, significant fines and as much as five years in a federal prison. Other crimes such as money laundering, racketeering, transferring of funds or partaking in gambling activity across state lines and tax evasion can be mitigating factors of any investigation into illegal gambling.
The laws tend to be more lenient if you are caught simply betting via an illegal gambling site. It’s not the little person that law enforcement is after with this crime. They are seeking to shut down operators. They aren’t looking to put a halt to your weekly poker game with your friends.
That same logic seems to apply when it comes to offshore online casino sites. It’s often said that these sites operate in a grey area of the law. While they are technically illegal in the USA, shutting down operations that are situated in foreign countries is extremely problematic for law enforcement.
At the same time, there’s no record of any American who gambles at these offshore sites ever being charged with a crime for doing so.
What Is The Process For Reporting Fraudulent Activities By An Online Casino?
You hit for a big win at an online casino and yet you’re not being paid your winnings. Or perhaps you are certain that you’ve met all of the wagering requirements attached to the welcome bonus offer you’ve received from your new online casino and despite this, the winnings you’ve earned are still being withheld by the casino banker.
What do you do should you find yourself facing this type of scenario? Well, first of all, it’s best to start out by contacting the casino site’s customer support staff. Explain the issue and find out from them what exactly is going on. It could be a simple misunderstanding.
However, should things escalate in the wrong direction and you are still certain that the online casino is doing you wrong, there are several steps you can proceed with in order to find a resolution.
Start out by identifying the state regulator that is overseeing the online casino operation. This will be prominently displayed on the front page of the casino’s web page. By entering the license number of the online casino – which will again be easy to locate on their website – you can input that number on the regulator’s website to verify that the online casino is in fact licensed by them. You’ll also be able to check the history of the online casino and determine whether they’ve ever been involved in something similar to what you feel is being done to you.
Every state license comes with certain conditions attached, requirements that the online casino must continue to meet in order to stay in operation. These conditions will relate to such factors as protection of customer data, assurances of game integrity, responsible gaming options and anti-money laundering procedures.
All online casinos are required to complete full compliance reports on their operations. These can include audits of their financial transactions and assurances that their games are all passing random fair play tests.
You can also check out an online casino’s user reviews at several online sites. This might not help you in your pursuit of action against the online casino, but it can inform you of whether other people are encountering similar issues to your concern.
If you’ve taken all these steps and are still not satisfied that there is a suitable and reasonable resolution, then it’s time to file a formal complaint about the online casino to the state regulator through their dispute resolution system. You’ll want to outline your complaint in easy to understand language while providing a clear and concise description of the issue. Remember to include your username and account number with the complaint.
There is also the option to take legal action against the online casino, but this should only be done as a last resort, since you could incur significant personal financial costs to do so.
In all honesty, the chances of an event like this occurring at a legal and regulated US online casino are beyond remote.
To commit this sort of act, the online casino would be running up against a serious level of jeopardy.
At the very least, significant fines would be forthcoming from the state regulator. There would also be a real possibility that the casino would see its license revoked.
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