Free Online Gaming Gambling

Legislation in the United States has, for the most part, considered online gambling somewhat of a legal grey area. An important thing to remember is that there is no law that states online gambling should be considered illegal.

For the most part, the legality of online gambling depends on your residential state. Louisiana, Illinois, Michigan and Nevada currently prohibit online gambling. Massachusetts, California, Utah, and South Dakota prohibit specific areas of online gambling while not prohibiting others.

However, substantial loopholes seem to surface from those laws. The notion was held that no law could ever be introduced on a national level that could or would prevent online gambling from taking place. Yet, in 2006, that notion proved to not be entirely accurate.

In September of 2006, a bill was represented by a republican congressman citing moral issues with online gambling. This law was called the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The Senate eventually passed the bill successfully. As a consequence of the Act it is deemed illegal for any financial institutions located within America to accept any online gambling transactions generated from any gambling operator.

However, the new law makes the legality still hard to determine. A few predominant online casinos continue to receive players from America. The new laws have proven rather difficult and nearly impossible to enforce.

For the time being, it seems that the placing of bets online by American citizens has merely been changed, and not disregarded entirely. Although no one involves has even come close to being prosecuted under this relatively new law, Players should still educate themselves beforehand and be willing to take a little risk.

For more information on online gaming resources, visit http://www.onlinegaming.asia

Are you planning to visit a casino for the first time? Then you must be confused about the various casino games available. An online casino guide can resolve your problem and help you with the variety of available games. It will not only will list the numerous games but also help you to learn the game through their online tutorials. There are many like you, who have started betting their money into the casino gaming world after learning the games from online casino guide only. It is important to mention here that these gaming aficionados have practiced a lot in the free online gambling sites before playing with real money.

There are infinite number of games that a casino can host. But only a few of them are of high demand and are mostly made available by all casinos. Such games are slot, roulette, blackjack, poker etc. In general, a casino anchors two types of games. One, where the players are hardly required to use their brain and intelligence whereas the others need skills along with luck.

Roulette and Slot belongs to the first category where you can enjoy because the game results are mostly depended on luck. Let me give you a brief idea about the games.

Learn Slots From Online Casino Guide

The slot machines were invented, keeping in mind the wives and girlfriends of gambling men, because those skilled gambling players found it difficult to concentrate on the game due to the presence of their wives and girlfriends. This particular entertaining game has a high payout potential and is considered as one of the most interesting gambling amusements. Currently, slot machines are known to generate maximum revenue than any other game.

Most of the time it is a colorful machine with a handle jutting out. All you have to do is put a coin or a chip, provided by the house, and pull the handle. This will trigger the reels to spin. Your target or objective of the game is to hit a jackpot. The moment you accomplish it, the lightings and music will let you know of it.

Learn Roulette From Online Casino Guide

This is another amusing game, which involves a lot of noise and is generally surrounded by huge crowd, in case of terrestrial casinos. But in online casinos, the high-end graphical effect compensates the surrounding sounds. A roulette wheel is either divided in 37 or 38 sections, where 36 sections are occupied by numbers and the other one or two sections are occupied by zero(s). As the croupier spins the roulette wheel, he or she rolls out a dice. When the wheel stops, the dice settles on a number. That number is announced as the winning number, through the placement of a “dolly”.

Learn Blackjack From Online Casino Guide

The objective of the game is to score a 21 without going over it, commonly known as busting in blackjack. This particular game is played against the dealer, instead of the co-players. The face cards (Kings, Queens and Jacks) are worth 10, but Aces are considered 11 or 1, depending on the accompanying cards. Other cards are valued according to their numbers.

There are many games that add glamor to the casinos, which you will learn in my other articles.

Rajesh Mahato has been into this gaming world for some years. Thus, he/she is trying to help others by referring them to online casino guide for helping them understand all about online games slots.

Internet Casinos Inc. (ICI), the world’s first online casino, started operating from August 18, 1995, with 18 different games. Since then more than 1,400 websites, mostly domiciled in small Caribbean islands, have given rise to an industry that grosses over $3 billion a year. In fact no business on the Internet earns more revenue than online gambling. Out of the estimated 14.5 million online gamblers, almost 30 per cent are from Asia.

A bet can be placed in minutes. Anyone with a credit card can set up an offshore currency account with a gambling site, leaving them free to place bets on sporting events like Wimbledon, cricket, horse racing and Formula One, or join a virtual casino to play slot machines, roulette, blackjack, poker etc. Companies like Flutter and Betmart accept bets on anything from who is going to win the Nobel Prize to whether Madonna is getting a divorce or not. Bets can range from a nickel to thousands of dollars and according to whether you win or lose the amount is automatically adjusted to your account. The final balance can then either be mailed to you or left for future bets.

The law relating to online gambling in India needs to be understood within the country’s socio-cultural context. At the outset, gambling, although not absolutely prohibited in India, does not receive express encouragement by policy makers. The Indian organized gambling industry is estimated to be worth around US$8 billion. While stringent laws have checked the proliferation of casinos and high street gaming centres as in many other countries, barring the state of Goa, the lottery business remains the most post popular form of gambling.

Though gambling is not illegal, it is a highly controlled and regulated activity. Modern India is a quasi-federal Constitutional democracy and the powers to legislate are distributed at the federal as well as the state levels. Gambling features in List II of the Constitution of India, this implies that the state governments have the authority to enact laws in order to regulate gambling in the respective states. Thus, there is no single law governing gambling in the entire country. Different states have different laws governing gambling in addition to the laws that have an application across the country. While some states have banned lotteries, other states allow state government lotteries marketed and distributed in other lottery playing and promoting states through private entities.

Regulation of gambling

The courts have defined gambling as ‘the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize’. The dominant element of skill or chance shall determine the nature of the game. A game may be deemed to be gambling if the element of chance or luck predominates in deciding its outcome. As a result, Indian courts have held that betting on horse racing and a few card games are not gambling. The right to undertake the business of gambling and lotteries is not considered as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution of India. It may however be pointed out that the state government run lotteries make significant contributions to the state exchequer of several state governments and the Union government, and hence there is a resistance to complete prohibition.

The following legislation is pertinent to gambling:

The Public Gaming Act, 1867

This Act provides punishment for public gambling and for keeping of a ‘common gaming house’. This Act also authorises the state governments to enact laws to regulate public gambling in their respective jurisdictions. The penal legislations in respective states have been amended in accordance with their policy on gambling. However, this legislation does not have any direct impact on online gambling unless a wide interpretation is given to the definition of common gaming house so as to include virtual forums as well.

The Indian Contract Act, 1872 (ICA)

The ICA is a codified umbrella legislation that governs all commercial contracts in India. Under the ICA, a wagering contract is the one which cannot be enforced. The Act lays down; ‘Agreements by way of wager are void, and no suit shall be brought for recovering anything alleged to be won on any wager or entrusted to any person to abide by the result of any game or other uncertain event on which any wager is made’. Gambling, lottery and prize games have held to be wagering contracts and thus void and unenforceable. While a wagering contract is not illegal, it cannot be enforced in a court of law. Thus, the courts will not entertain any cause of action that arises out of a wagering contract.

Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998

This Act provides a framework for organizing lotteries in the country. Under this Act, the state governments have been authorized to promote as well as prohibit lotteries within their territorial jurisdiction. This Act also provides for the manner in which the lotteries are to be conducted and prescribes punishment in case of breach of its provision. Lotteries not authorized by the state have been made an offence under the Indian Penal Code. Several non-lottery playing states, like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have prohibited the sale of other state-government lotteries under this Act.

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 294A deals with keeping lottery office. It says that whoever keeps any office or place for the purpose of drawing any lottery not being a State lottery or a lottery authorised by the State Government, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

And whoever publishes any proposal to pay any sum, or to deliver any goods, or to do or forbear doing anything for the benefit of any person, on any event or contingency relative or applicable to the drawing of any ticket, lot, number or figure in any such lottery, shall be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.

Internet gambling

The law related to gambling is also applicable to online gambling. All gambling contracts are considered to be wagering contracts and it is not possible to enforce such contracts under the ICA, detailed above.

As pointed out earlier, the online lottery is the most popular form of internet gambling in India. Most companies marketing and distributing or conducting state government-sponsored lotteries through the internet are not allowed to sell their services in the states that banned lotteries. In most cases, these marketers and distributors limit their online services to consumers who are residents of the states where a lottery is permissible. Notwithstanding the fact there has been no reported case of breach by any company promoting online lotteries, most of these companies (as a safeguard) seek an undertaking from their consumers relating to their residence.

There have been instances where one state has banned the lottery of other states, including online lotteries. In a recent case, the Karnatka High Court upheld the decision of the Karnataka government to make itself a ‘lottery free zone’ by imposing a ban on lotteries of all other states, including online lotteries under the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998. The state government, in this case, directed the closure of the terminals and kiosks selling the online lotteries.

Enforcement over foreign jurisdictions

If the websites are hosted and operated from outside India, it may be difficult for the Indian authorities to issue any directive to close them down or prohibit their access without using its blocking powers under the ITA. The authorities have little to worry about, as Indian foreign exchange laws do not permit remittances outside India for gambling related activity, such as the purchase of lottery tickets, football pools and sweepstakes. As a result, a gambling website hosted outside India aiming at receiving money from within India cannot do so through legal channels.

Conclusion

Online gambling remains a highly regulated sector with seemingly limited horizons to grow. While the present regulatory framework makes it difficult for offshore gambling websites to target customers in India, the India-based companies can only distribute and market state-government lotteries online in permitted territories. The pervasive authority with the government to block gambling related websites and the impossibility of enforcing gambling-related contracts further discourage the prospects for the industry.