United Kingdom was one of the first countries to open up a regulated and licensed online gambling industry, back in the early 2000s. Since then, there has been mounting pressure on American lawmakers to follow suit.
Thanks to the striking down of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) in 2018, a whole host of American states have either followed the full British example or moved toward online wagering legalisation in one way or another.
That means that over half of Americans are free to play with any registered operators but due to what has gone before, it’s not just a confusing landscape gamblers have been left to navigate, but a potentially perilous one too.
Why Have The IRS Warned Gamblers?
The IRS has recently warned gamblers that they need to use regulated online gambling sites for their own security, and it’s obvious to see why. In the years between the advent of online wagering and the striking down of PASPA, American gamblers didn’t just sit idly by and abide by the rules. Nor did online gambling companies.
In those years, a whole host of overseas gambling companies began to advertise their services to American players, and whilst the majority of them were just unscrupulous and shameless, rather than downright dodgy, there was still a handful that were fraudulent.
Here’s a list of the perils of gambling with overseas, unregulated sites, starting with the minor inconveniences and going right the way up to the life-changing consequences:
- Data Sellers: When we buy things online, we have the option of agreeing whether or not to share our data with companies. If we say we don’t want an American company to share our data with third parties and they do, we can sue them. If the same happens with a company registered in the Philippines or Gibraltar, we don’t have the same legal safety nets. Overseas gambling companies know this and often just go ahead and sell your data, regardless of what you agree to when you sign up.
- Dodgy Data Sellers: There are tiers of data selling. The first is that a company sells your data so that it appears on a marketing database, and you end up with a series of spam calls to your cell phone. The other tier is when your data is sold to criminals who use it for nefarious reasons, which could include setting up fake emails or bank accounts in your name. Some will even use your personal information to take out loans.
- Fraud: The final consequence is that you either sign up with a supplier that decides they don’t want to pay you out when you win, or one that goes one step further and uses your ban account details to steal your money.
Are the Risks Overblown?
Well, the first thing to say is that the legal framework that protects you here in the United States is not applicable when you’re wagering with overseas gambling companies. That means that your only protection is goodwill and trust.
Naturally, there are plenty of trustworthy and reliable operators that can be found with a simple Google search – companies that regularly operate in trusted countries like the UK, for example. But there are also plenty of unscrupulous providers out there, masquerading as trusted suppliers.
There are also countless examples of gamblers who have been tricked out of money by overseas gambling companies in the local and national news. And for every person that has gone public with their story, there are hundreds, if not thousands, more who have been done out of money in the same way.
The Bottom Line
10 years ago, the landscape was very different. If you wanted to wager online in the United States, you simply couldn’t. Now, the vast majority of Americans at least have some access to online gambling. The online casinos in the US are continually making efforts to be available to as many people as possible, so there’s no real need to look to overseas suppliers anymore.
If you’re unfortunate enough to be defrauded out of money by an online gambling company, you’re far better placed legally if that company is registered and licensed in the United States than overseas. Your local police officers and attorney can go and investigate a company based in your town or in a different state. They can’t go and arrest someone in Asia, Europe, or farther afield.
