Casino domains illegal in USA

[pixelbugnyc]

it just dawned on me but considering how anything and everything casino related is illegal in the United States, would parking a casino domain be considered illegal as well?

 

[GreenGambler]

How do you determin a Casino Domain?

Does it have to have the word casino in it?

I own GreenGambler.com, it was originally a Casino site, but now I think I will make it into an environmental awarness site, just haven't gotton to it yet.

I don't know the answer but I would think it's ok to park casino names.. not sure though.

 

[Domainate.com]

it just dawned on me but considering how anything and everything casino related is illegal in the United States, would parking a casino domain be considered illegal as well?

About as illegal as downloading free music on KaZaA and whatnot - as in yes, but it'll be a cold day in hell by the time they go after even .1% of the people doing it. But yea, it can technically be considered aiding and abetting illegal online gambling in the US. Keep in mind though, gambling online has been illegal here since well before last year. People like to think the UIGEA last year made it illegal, but it was already illegal, yet it's grown to a multi-billion dollar industry in the US, so take that as you will.

 

[harkster]

I have a different view of this. Why would a casino name not be legal as long as it did not promote online gambling?

 

[Domainate.com]

I have a different view of this. Why would a casino name not be legal as long as it did not promote online gambling?

When you're parking it with links to places where people can gamble online, that's exactly what it's doing.

 

[nrmillions]

If you are not providing an actual gambling service and taking bets from your name then it shouldnt be illegal. If you dont want to take any chances then just dont park your casino related names and just own them.

 

[dgridley]

What about regional domains such as for Las Vegas and Atlantic City? If you blog them and Adsense comes up that's gambling related, how does that work out?

 

[ablaye]

it just dawned on me but considering how anything and everything casino related is illegal in the United States, would parking a casino domain be considered illegal as well?

No. It would not be considered illegal. You are not engaging in the activity yourself.

 

[dgridley]

I believe that would be an incorrect assumption.. you don't have to engage in the activity to be promoting it, even if it's inadvertent. You may not engage in protitution, for example, but if you send someone to a prositute, it's considered pandering.

No. It would not be considered illegal. You are not engaging in the activity yourself.

 

[johnny6]

I believe that would be an incorrect assumption.. you don't have to engage in the activity to be promoting it, even if it's inadvertent. You may not engage in protitution, for example, but if you send someone to a prositute, it's considered pandering.

Yeah, well, you may not be engaging in selling credit cards directly, but you can be a credit card affiliate and send someone to a credit card site all day. I use this example because there's nothing remotely illegal about owning casino names and making money off of them. Parking casino domains didn't enter into that port security bill.

Gambling online in the US is illegal mainly due to taxation purposes (or lack thereof). Parking domains is theoretically taxed.

 

[rome2ng]

well, won't it be better if you guys start selling those domains and forget everything else ?

 

[krispy1812]

Here is a quote from several state laws:

Criminal liability based upon behavior of another - Complicity.
A person is legally accountable for the behavior of another constituting a criminal offense if, with the intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense:

(1) He procures, induces or causes such other person to commit the offense; or
(2) He aids or abets such other person in committing the offense; or
(3) Having a legal duty to prevent the commission of the offense, he fails to make an effort he is legally required to make.


Criminal liability based upon behavior of another - Exceptions.
Unless otherwise provided by the statute defining the offense, a person shall not be legally accountable for behavior of another constituting a criminal offense if:

(1) He is a victim of that offense; or
(2) The offense is so defined that his conduct is inevitably incidental to its commission; or
(3) Prior to the commission of the offense, he voluntarily terminated his effort to promote or assist its commission and either gave timely and adequate warning to law enforcement authorities, or to the intended victim, or wholly deprived his complicity of its effectiveness in the commission of the offense. The burden of injecting this issue is on the defendant, but this does not shift the burden of proof.

Definitions.
The following definitions apply:

(1) ADVANCE GAMBLING ACTIVITY. A person "advances gambling activity" if he engages in conduct that materially aids any form of gambling activity. Conduct of this nature includes but is not limited to conduct directed toward the creation or establishment of the particular game, contest, scheme, device or activity involved, toward the acquisition or maintenance of premises, paraphernalia, equipment or apparatus therefor, toward the solicitation or inducement of persons to participate therein, toward the actual conduct of the playing phases thereof, toward the arrangement of any of its financial or recording phases or toward any other phase of its operation. A person advances gambling activity if, having substantial proprietary control or other authoritative control over premises being used with his knowledge for purposes of gambling activity, he permits that activity to occur or continue or makes no effort to prevent its occurrence or continuation.

 

[dgridley]

BUT.. the big difference is: credit cards are not illegal, online gambling for US citizens is. That's the question.

Yeah, well, you may not be engaging in selling credit cards directly, but you can be a credit card affiliate and send someone to a credit card site all day. I use this example because there's nothing remotely illegal about owning casino names and making money off of them. Parking casino domains didn't enter into that port security bill.

Gambling online in the US is illegal mainly due to taxation purposes (or lack thereof). Parking domains is theoretically taxed.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

it just dawned on me but considering how anything and everything casino related is illegal in the United States, would parking a casino domain be considered illegal as well?

Not necessarily. Only active ONLINE GAMBLING is illegal. If a casino or gambling name goes to a place that's legal and they pay you for the traffic to get visitors there, and not as a commission for bets placed, then it is not illegal online gambling. For most parking pages, you are paid for CLICKS and TRAFFIC, not for taking bets.

For example. lets say I have a a gambling related domain. I can place that domain at a parking service and get paid for clicks from real legal casinos, authors of gambling strategy books or classes, gambling addiction organizations, or anyone else who wants to legally pay for click traffic, as well as from people who don't live in the US and are not subject to US law who may actually bet online legally.

Online gambling in the US has always been illegal. What has changed is those who were taking bets from US residents gambling illegally can no longer legally collect the payments from US based gamblers credit cards or banks. Since they can't collect, it's less likely they will take illegal bets or pay for traffic from US locations. The recent changes didn't make it illegal to get paid for traffic, it just made it less likely that the site operators would want to pay for traffic. When you park a domain you don't typically know what a person is going to do after they click the link away from your site. They may do something legal or they may not.

However, I'd say if you have an affiliate site that takes commissions on bets it might be a different story since you could be participating in the actual illegal act. Or if you park your domain on a site that actually takes wagers instead of just paying for traffic you likely have some liability.

I believe that would be an incorrect assumption.. you don't have to engage in the activity to be promoting it, even if it's inadvertent. You may not engage in protitution, for example, but if you send someone to a prositute, it's considered pandering.

Lets look a couple other analogies. Prostitution is legal in Nevada and some other countries. Can I not have a site called prostitution.com parked and accept paid links from legal business in those places. I don't think it would be illegal for an American to park a domain amsterdamhookers.net and accept paid clicks from Amsterdam hookers in Holland where it is legal. In parking a page, I don't think I'm responsible for making sure the Nevada brothel doesn't send a hooker to Utah.

Lets say I have a site called beer.us. It's illegal to sell beer to anyone under 21, but not illegal for those over 21. If I park the page and accept payments for clicks, do I have to card everyone who clicks before sending them to the site? No the destination site has to make sure they only deal with legal buyers. Online gambling is legal in many parts of the world, so advertising for places where it is legal should be legal. It would also be between the beer seller and the buyer to know they can't ship beer to a dry county, not the person who parked the page that put the potential buyer and seller together. Is it illegal for a person in a dry county to own a liquor domain and accept paid parking on it?

Not all clicks to a casino parked page would be illegal because of the location of the user outside the US or because the click may also result in completely legal online activity by a US based customer.

 

[Ronald Regging]

NameTrader has it dead on. Technically online gambling MAY be illegal. It's written in a bill somewhere, but the wording is so vague that there has never been a real decision made on it. So for someone to come after you for parking casino domains, they'd first have to actually determine whether or not online gambling is illegal... Its a massive gray area right now, and the most recent bill only made it illegal for payment processors to transfer funds for gambling purposes. It did nothing to clarify whether or not online gambling is actually illegal.

For all intents and purposes we'll assume online gambling is illegal. But the whole issue is wrapped up in so much red tape that no one is going to waste time coming after some low level guy with a parked domain.

Plus if this were the case, then wouldn't major publications like Card Player Magazine and other gambling magazines be raided and jailed for promoting illegal gambling by advertising online gambling sites in their mag and on their site? When you see them being taken down, then you can worry.

 

[harkster]

well, won't it be better if you guys start selling those domains and forget everything else ?

Why, when www.robertspokerrules.com which does not promote online gambling activity and like many sites in my 'stable' generates more than it costs. I sell it for a few bucks and that revenue is gone which means I must build another name to replace the $. Selling ain't everything.

 

[goodkarmaco]

well said adoptable

 

[dgridley]

Some good points, Adoptable and Ronald.. one thing I think we can agree on: the waters are murky and confusing.

 

[Raf]

There are some really good points here in relation to casino domains, I wouldn't know myself about the actual legality of the domains as I do live in Canada. I think it would all tie down as to how you further use the domain, parking the domain with possibility of revenue would be a no-no as you're still most likely going to promote gambling through links found on the parking page and it's intended category.

Regardless, a very interesting question.