Online Casinos Directory

The online gambling industry is still relatively new, only having been around since the early 1990’s. Compared to most of the industries in which people participate and governments regulate, online gambling is still in a fledgling phase. For that reason, a lot of people aren’t clear on what the laws are regarding gambling over the Internet. That certainly isn’t helped by the fact that the laws can be rather confusing. Take the federal laws in Australia and the United States as just two excellent examples.

If you try to look up the Australian gambling laws on the books using australia.gov.au, you’ll find that gambling online is illegal. That is only partially true, though. Currently the Australian government does not regulate the online gambling industry and it does not allow any online gambling companies to be run in the country. As for the overseas online casinos, they violate Australian law if they accept Australian customers or advertise in the country. However, the gambling ban does not apply to the players – only the businesses. It is not illegal for Australian customers to play on the offshore online casinos. There are currently lawmakers trying to change that, though, by amending the law to make it illegal on the player’s side as well. For now, though, the players are not breaking the law.

And then there is the United States. There is no federal law regulating or banning online gambling. The Wire Act bans electronic (phone or Internet) gambling on sporting events. However, as stated on onlinecasinosinusa.net, neither the Wire Act nor UIGEA bans online casinos or online poker rooms. Players can wager there legally and it is not illegal for the offshore casino operators to accept American customers. This has been confusing because the Department of Justice was confused and until recently was of the opinion that the Wire Act banned all online gambling. In December 2011, they admitted they were wrong. Some U.S. states, such as Washington and Utah, do not allow online gambling. For the rest, online gambling is legal if the company is located offshore. If the company is located in America, though, it would be illegal, because they would require a gambling license to operate and the U.S. does not issue online gambling licenses. Still confused?

If you recently tried to log into Bodog’s website to do some sports betting or online gambling, you may have encountered a problem. The domain has been seized by the United States Department of Justice, along with indictments against the company’s founder, Calvin Ayre, and three of his website operators.

Ayre and the other defendants are charged with running an illegal gambling business and money laundering. If convicted of both charges, they each face up to 25 years in prison. Arrest warrants have been issued for the defendants.

According to the Justice Department, federal investigators opened accounts at Bodog using Maryland addresses. In the state of Maryland, sports betting is illegal. Online sports betting is illegal throughout the entire United States. According to an affidavit, the investigators were able to play at Bodog and had winnings mailed to them in the form of checks. Calvin Ayre denies any wrongdoing and says that his company has not accepted bets from Americans. The prosecutors say that more than $100 million has been paid out to American customers by Bodog from 2005 to 2011.

According to news found on Google, the Bodog domain was seized on Monday and the indictments were released on Tuesday. No arrests have been made of yet. Calvin Ayre and the other three indicted parties are Canadian citizens and Bodog is based in Canada. In December 2011, Bodog.com changed its name to Bodog.eu and at that point, the company said that it would no longer accept customers from America. On his personal website, Ayre said that the indictments are without merit and are done to protect the interests or large U.S. companies that view Bodog as competition.