Almost since day one, online gambling has been under the gun. These days, online gambling falls into a grey area in regards to its legality. There is not a simple answer to this question because in many places, the answer is both yes and no. In total, there are about seventy countries that allow online gambling. These countries include Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Denmark, Finland, France, and Germany. As well, there are some provinces in Canada in which it is legal to operate an online casino, or to gamble online.
Online casinos tend to leave the legality of using their site in the hands of the player. When you register for an online casino, you are required to accept the user agreement. Most of these agreements include a section that says it is the responsibility of the player to know, or find out whether online gambling is legal in the area in which they live. These sites will typically impose an age restriction to register for their site. This can obviously be bypassed by simply lying about your age. With that fact in mind, most of the user agreements also state that the player is responsible for ensuring they are of a legal age to gamble in their area.
The fact is that online gambling is technically illegal across most states within the U.S. Recently, however, there has been legislation that allows online gambling in some states. The prosecution and conviction of individual players is a very difficult thing because the player is gambling from their own home. What the United States made abundantly clear until recently was that it was illegal to own or operate on online casino or bookmaking site on American soil. This is why you saw the offices of most online gambling sites located in other countries. This has also recently changed as well with New Jersey allowing online casinos to operate within the state. Many experts believe that we will soon see other states following suit. In fact, many states already have legislation in the works that would make online gambling legal.
In like fashion, many of the countries and areas around the globe that previously outlawed online gambling have begun passing legislation that makes online gambling legal. Some believe that this is in part due to the inability to completely control online gambling. Imagine, if you will, that a player lives in a state in the U.S. in which it is illegal to gamble online. He/she is logged into an online casino that is operated in the Netherlands. This casino is technically breaking the law by allowing the player to place wagers. The state government has no authority or jurisdiction in the Netherlands. As such, there is no really effective way to prevent this situation from happening. This has been a very real issue since online gaming first began to be outlawed; however, there has never been any effective solution to it.
In areas where online casinos are legal, the government has set many regulations and strict guidelines that make sure the casinos you see online are, in large, legitimate businesses. When you consider this, it can be said that visiting an online casino is no more risky than visiting a physical one in an area near you that allows gambling. These regulations make sure that casinos pay out when a player wins to ensure the player is not being scammed. You should make note that not all countries in which online casinos operate have these strict regulations, the sites based in Finland and Australia are well known to adhere to national standards. It is always prudent to do some research to ensure you are using a trusted online casino.
Remember the legality of online gambling varies greatly from region to region. Before engaging in online gambling, you should always check with the laws of your country and locality to make sure you are operating within the boundaries of the law.