Picked this quote up from another thread, but I think it applies here as well.
I think any of us who have dabbled in online gambling could agree that “legal/illegal?” is the gray area to end all gray areas. I can’t remember seeing online gambling ever alluded to here on the forums, so I wanted to ask the question first.
A thread about “who’s the easiest to deposit with? what about getting a withdrawal from? most active poker games? best sportsbook bets offered?” - would that be teetering on “engaging in an illegal act”?
I’m an engineer, not a lawyer, so if anyone has a better understanding of this, please, feel free to correct me.
My understanding of it is that the U.S. government claims that the Federal Wire Act covers all forms of online gambling. The way that this has been enforced is a bit like how copyright infringements have been enforced. The government generally goes after the hosting site, but leaves the individual users alone. This does not mean that the individual users are not engaging in anything illegal, only that they typically are not prosecuted. The U.S. government also typically only goes after hosting sites that are under its jurisdiction, i.e. within the borders of the United States. Again, this does not mean that anyone accessing a gambling site that is not based in the U.S. is legally safe, only that access to those foreign sites is typically not prosecuted.
It is also my understanding that there is a bit of a gray area involved here in that some legal experts claim that the Federal Wire Act does not actually cover everything that the U.S. government claims that it does.
We tend to err on the side of caution here, and we moderators are not lawyers, so as long as the U.S. government claims that it all falls under the Federal Wire Act, we’re not going to allow discussions that would violate the government’s current interpretation of that act.
Online gambling is legal in NJ; sites are run by bricks & mortar casinos & advertised on radio. They don’t have sports books but NJ is suing for that right.
Would a thread be allowed on that online gambling?
Like I said, we’re not lawyers (and shouldn’t that start with “Damnit, Jim!”, Leo?). Probably the best thing to do for something like that is to send us the post you want to make first.
Speaking in generalities, if the post really did conform to all of the applicable laws (as best as we can determine), there’s a good chance that we would allow the post. However, there are some things that we wouldn’t allow. If the post was specific to NJ, but could be interpreted as to be encouraging online gambling on other sites that aren’t legal, that would not be allowed, for example.