Posted on: August 26, 2024, 02:15 am.
Last updated on: August 26, 2024, 02:49.
Offshore casino and sports betting websites that illegally target players in the United States in direct violation of federal and state gambling laws continue to be ordered to cease operations by state gambling regulators.
One of the more well-known illegal gambling websites that has been facilitating online gambling for years to players in states where such gambling is not permitted is Bovada. The gambling brand was originally known as Bodog and reportedly made Saskatchewan-born Calvin Ayre a billionaire.
This month, gambling regulators in Ohio and Louisiana joined a growing list of state gaming authorities sending cease and desist letters to Bovada. The Ohio Casino Control Commission and the Louisiana Gaming Control Board each sent warning letters to the online gambling website, which operates globally from its headquarters in Curacao.
Both Louisiana and Ohio have legal and regulated casinos and sportsbooks, both on-site and online. However, online casino gaming remains prohibited.
Bovada limits operations
The orders from Louisiana and Ohio to Bovada follow a growing list of states where gambling is legal that have warned Bovada against blocking consumers in their jurisdictions from accessing its internet slots, table games, poker rooms and sportsbooks. Bovada maintains that it operates legally through its iGaming license, which it holds from the Anjouan Gaming Board.
Not only does Bovada hold an online gaming license for the archipelago nation off the southeast coast of Africa, but the website is also registered with the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority.
U.S. gaming regulators, gaming industry leaders and federal lawmakers say the Anjouan licenses have no legal significance in the U.S. Ohio and Louisiana join Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Washington, DC and West Virginia in ordering Bovada to block player accounts registered in those jurisdictions.
On its website, Bovada states that it has complied with all cease-and-desist requests, with Louisiana being the only exception at the time of this writing. The LGCB wrote to the iGaming company in a letter dated August 6.
Bovada says a customer with an account balance in a state where the site ceases operations should contact customer service to initiate “a cryptocurrency withdrawal.”
Cryptocurrency is the preferred currency on Bovada as the platform offers players bigger sign-up bonuses and promotional incentives when they use Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other popular decentralized digital currencies.
Unregulated gambling
Gambling has increased significantly in the United States in recent years.
In addition to numerous new states with commercial casinos, the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that a federal law that had limited single-game sports betting to Nevada was unconstitutional led to nearly 40 states allowing sports betting. Legal iGaming has also expanded to seven states, and several others continue to consider whether to allow online slots and table games.
As the legal gaming industry continues to expand into new markets and players, the American Gaming Association – the leading industry association representing commercial and indigenous gaming interests in the capital and across the country – believes the Justice Department needs to take a stronger stance against illegal gambling abroad.
The federal authority emphasizes that it “takes the problem of illegal gambling on the Internet seriously and continues to successfully investigate and take action against illegal gambling on the Internet.”
