The first thing you need to understand is that if gambling online became officially illegal (yes, it is now, but there’s a gray area), you would have no freedom of speech rights. The 1st amendment doesn’t apply to illegal activities.
Second, you would be promoting an illegal activity and yes it would be illegal. Here’s all you need to know.
Sec 1084 (a) (
says that the following is criminal “information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers;”
In the definitions, this act is described as:
“(13) The term `information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers’ means information knowingly transmitted by an individual in a gambling business that enables or facilitates a bet or wager”
Here’s what that definition doesn’t include:
“advertising relating to betting or wagering in a jurisdiction where such betting or wagering is legal, as long as such advertising does not solicit or provide information for the purpose of facilitating or enabling the placing or receipt of bets or wagers in a jurisdiction where such betting is illegal.”
This means that if you live in the USA and advertise an affiliate program where someone else in the USA can SEE it, you are providing “information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers” and you are breaking the law. Also if anyone else sees the ads that in areas where gambling is illegal, you are guilty again.