- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Panicking is certainly not going to help, as far as I understood it, it will still take 270 days before the payment processors will have to have the system in place to block US based payments gambling sites. I believe that although this is bad it will create a lot of side businesses that will take advantage of the current situation. Although the US is the largest market by far it is not the only one and the fastest growth in this market is happening outside the United States.
pearlgaming wrote:Panicking is certainly not going to help, as far as I understood it, it will still take 270 days before the payment processors will have to have the system in place to block US based payments gambling sites.That seems to be the case, but the minute the president signs the bill, it becomes law. This is the reason that the big public companies have all stated that when it’s signed, they’ll respect the law.
The enforcement part comes later, but still be aware that the transfer is one of the key items.
My comforting thought is that many people who are casual gamblers will be turned off by this and not really care one way or the other, however, the bigger players out there will be irate and will possibly look for alternate means of funding their accounts. With the % of revenue that comes from dedicated players, this may not affect the overall revenues THAT much, but I may be full of it.
I think Allen has sort of verbalized one set of feelings I have on the matter, but at the same time, we’re pioneering new ground in this industry every step. Who knows where it will ultimately lead. Take a look at Italy – they just announced that they will accept gaming companies officially (for a small %). Who’s to say that other countries don’t follow suit?
If you are not panicking a little, hats off to you. You are made of sterner stuff than everyone else here.
justred wrote:If you are not panicking a little, hats off to you. You are made of sterner stuff than everyone else here.Can’t say i’m panicked, but i feel very insecure about all this.
I don’t understand the logic behind this new law either. Does someone really believes this will prevent money going out from the USA?
The more US players lose, the more affiliates earn.. That includes US based affiliates as well.. I am sure most of the US affiliates pay taxes as well and by that bring some of the money back.
Moreover, if advertising gambling was legal (on Google and Overture and other media types for example) then the gambling buisness companies would spend a fortune on advertising in the US and that is more income.. Plus, the more transactions via banks and CC means more fees and more income from taxes.
Where’s the logic?
The part of the gambling companies being out of US jurisdiction is very true. That’s why I think they don’t have to stop accepting US gambling because they are regulated by other laws that permit it.
The problem here is that THEY VOLUNTARILY decided to not accept US gamblers anymore. That’s the case of 888 and partygaming and rumours are that playtech and microgaming will follow. That means that you will lose commissions from your US player base. Although they may be willing to gamble, they can’t because online casinos will not accept. This means that you will lose new US players and ALSO your past players.
So the most important part of all this is not the bill itself but the casinos VOLUNTARILY blocking US players, when they have a choice since they’re based outside US.
Without reading the specifics of the bill, this is my current opinion.
The US has made it illegal for US banks to transfer money to online gambling sites, and they have some sort of provisions for sites that have links to gambling sites out there.
First, who does this affect? Primarily it affects banks, but that affects the individual gambler since it will be just a tad bit harder to deposit money with an online casino. It also affects affiliate sites hosted on U.S. servers and run by U.S. citizens since they are now not allowed to link to online gambling sites for fear of aiding and abetting (there are several ways around this of course).
Second, what are the real threats to the entire affiliate industry (since plenty of us are not based in the U.S. already).
These would be the biggest threats I see:
1) Neteller and the other intermediaries are included as part of the sites that are banned from money transfers by U.S. citizens. This makes it more difficult for casual gamblers, but the people who really want to play will find a way around it.
2) Online gambling sites voluntarily stop taking wagers from U.S. citizens. We have already seen this action by 888 and Party Gaming. The interesting thing is that it only seems to be publicly traded companies that have alot to loose by having the DOJ breathing down their necks that are taking this action. What will be interesting to watch in the coming weeks is how the privately held companies react, especially the one’s that have 90% of their revenues coming from the U.S. This will be more telling to how this all shakes out. Obviously, the affiliate marketer wants the U.S. gambler to be able to play, but at the same time, if every site volutarily stopped taking wagers from the U.S. then the affiliate industry wouldn’t have any risk since an affiliate couldn’t possibly aid and abet when there isn’t anything illegal happening in the first place. But, there will always be some sites willing to take bets from the U.S. Of course this severly impacts the industry as upwards of 60% of online gambling funds come from the U.S. For the affiliate this means diversifying into markets outside of the U.S. — less lucrative, but high growth potential.
3) All online gambling sites are blocked from U.S. IP’s. This is the big one really, since theoretically, a would-be U.S. gambler would no longer be able to access the sites to play at. There are some huge difficulties with this one however as there are free speach and censorship issues that the U.S. population isn’t very keen on. This could actually be a good thing for affiliate sites, since the code that is used to link to the site could be setup to re-direct in a way that the gambler can now get to the site, when they could not get to the site by directly entering the URL. The thing that would really suck is if Google and Yahoo decided to police the Internet themselves and not allow any sites with links to known gambling websites. Again, there are censorship concerns here for certain, so it doesn’t seem likely that it would happen, but it could.
M.D wrote:Neteller, Casinos and others are all outside the jurisdiction of U.S. authorities. I find it hard to believe this industry is now dying so easily but the panic threads are making me afraid. Perhaps my english or the fact that I do not live in the USA prevent me from understanding the whole picture?Please limit the discussion on this to a few threads only, this should reduce the panic and help us stay focused. This panic and stress are killing me… Killing us.
Thanks, and i hope we all stir through to better and clearer days shortly.
Sure we all know this bill is very suspect and probably illegal but it is having an IMMEDIATE effect on us and this is why some of us are panicking. These casinos and related associates are tucking tail and running. They aren’t even waiting until the bill is signed! Never mind the 270 days it takes to go into effect. What does this tell you? This from Focal Click and Cryptologic 10 minutes ago —
In light of these events, our software and ECash provider for
Sunpoker.com, The Sands (http://www.cscasino.com) and Omni Casino,
CryptoLogic and ECashDirect, have made the decision to no longer
service US registered accounts.Consequently, all accounts with US based addresses will no longer
be able to play in the casino or poker room as of 12PM EST today
October 3rd.What will most likely happen is consolidation. First, the smaller casinos that relied heavily on US revs will either fold or be bought out by larger ones to get the non-us customer base. There maybe deals already in the works.
The US banks and US creditcard companies (many credit card companies have been doing this anyways. Not because of laws per’se but because players were ringing up big gambling charges and defaulting on payments. Congress mostly Republicans I might add, also passed a new bankruptcy law last year making it nearly impossible for those in debt to get a clean start. Most debt was wiped out now those that ring up debt even from medical bills or divorce are on the hook, sometimes for for years.)
will revise their merchant codes to block US money from going to casinos and more likely than not NETeller type accounts.
The banks were against the new gambling law mostly because of the additional costs and liability. However, there is wording in the law that states
if a bank operating as a “normal bank” transfers money to a casino they won’t be held responsible. (liable)Soon the US Treasury and a couple of other governmental agencies will determine exactly which funding instruments ie.. the NETellers this will affect.
Even though this must occur with the next 270 days, once the president signs the bill it automatically becomes law.ty webber286 for the clear comments!
id like more info on:
“The thing that would really suck is if Google and Yahoo decided to police the Internet themselves and not allow any sites with links to known gambling websites. Again, there are censorship concerns here for certain, so it doesn’t seem likely that it would happen, but it could.”
