Dutch Secretary of State for Justice Fred Teeven: ‘we cannot tell you now that companies will never be provided a license, however they are playing with fire.’ (Image: ANP)
While the Dutch may well start their online gambling market next year, the country’s Secretary of State for Justice, Fred Teeven, has made it specific that operators currently focusing on the Dutch market illegally are unwelcome. In fact, in reaction to questions in the Dutch Parliament about the total amount of online sports advertising that is betting at Dutch residents in the run up to the World Cup, Teeven warned that such sites had been ‘playing with fire.’
While Holland might have a liberal and socially modern mindset towards soft drugs like cannabis, and prostitution, the same cannot be traditionally said of online gambling. There are no legal Web video gaming sites in the united states, and the government holds a monopoly that is complete gambling. The nation’s only casino that is land-based, Holland Casino, which operates 13 venues round the country, is wholly owned by the state, with all profits going to the Treasury.
Breaking the Law
But, movements are afoot to alter this. Last 12 months, the Dutch Remote Gambling Act was drawn up and passed by an initial round of lawmakers in February. The bill is anticipated to be rubber-stamped later on this and should come into force midway through next year year. Experts predict that a regulated environment that is online bring in €200 million in gross gaming revenue in its first year.
Teeven has made it clear, however, that overseas operators are breaking Dutch law by targeting the market that is dutch. With echoes of this recent ‘cease and desist’ letters sent by nj-new Jersey regulators to online gambling advertisers, the Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) recently penned to certain operators who have been noisily marketing and advertising World Cup betting to Dutch citizens, warning them they continue to do so that they face sanctions should.
The question was posed in the House of Representatives by Mei Li Vos who asked: ‘If companies advertise, do they conform to regulations or not? And performs this imply that Unibet and other large events will not get a license once the new law has been approved?’
Teeven said that the KSA mostly targets businesses whom use such media as radio, TV, and internet sites ending in .nl, and those that have Dutch language options, in its fight against illegal advertising, although he would not be drawn into mentioning any organizations by name.
Bad Actors Frozen Out?
‘So far, things have gone quite nicely and just a few organizations were active into the market that is dutch. However, this is changing,’ said Teeven. ‘Companies which do so can be playing with fire as it pertains to licensing once the remote gaming law is implemented. Obviously, the KSA is in cost of licensing. We must however simply take into account the Bouwmeester Motion.’
The Bouwmeester Motion is the exact carbon copy of the ‘bad actor clause’ which is adopted by newly regulated states into the US, such as New Jersey and Nevada, and it is part of the proposed bill to legalize poker that is online California. Founded last year, it stipulates that illegal gambling operators that offer wagers to Dutch citizens should be excluded from a future market that is regulated. As is the situation in the United States, this list would include industry giants such as PokerStars (even though latter’s present buyout by Amaya Gaming ought to be a game changer in that arena).
However, Teeven declined to say definitively whether such operators would forever be frozen out: ‘I cannot inform at this point you that companies will never be granted a permit, nonetheless they are having fun with fire,’ he repeated. ‘It could be against all agreements we have reached in days gone by.’
US Casinos Must Refuse Wagers from Medical Marijuana Profits
All bets are off: Medical marijuana workers should be refused bets at casinos across the united states, on pain of prosecution, state federal regulators. (Image: ukcsc.co.uk)
America’s gambling enterprises must refrain from accepting bets from workers in the myfreepokies.com medical marijuana industry, a small grouping of federal regulators told gaming executives at the 2014 Bank Secrecy Act Conference in Las Vegas recently. Just like the clash between federal and individual state legislation has hindered the processing of online gaming transactions into the newly regulated states, the federal stance on cannabis means that the federal government will not permit the casino industry to take care of the proceeds of marijuana sales. Just How casinos are to determine that exactly, is obviously going to be problematic all around.
Former White House advisor on money laundering issues Jim Dowling, that is now a consultant to casinos, told executives: ‘Casinos can’t accept any money they have to comply with the new government guidance from them, or. This really is a problem that is federal has been brewing for a while, and now it is coming to a mind. State regulations and laws that are federaln’t match up.’
Should a casino knowingly accept a bet from a person working in the marijuana that is medical, they could face prosecution, unless they perform a series of time-consuming, costly, and frankly unrealistic background checks, Dowling explained. In this respect, casinos are being told to look at a relationship that is similar towards the medical marijuana industry as the banks, that have essentially blacklisted anyone in that business from starting a checking or savings account.
No Pot Luck Allowed
Dowling said he wanted to increase the issue at the conference in las vegas to ensure that casinos were conscious of the new guidelines therefore that they could avoid any threat of prosecution.
‘It’s extremely controversial. I’ll most likely get yourself a complete lot of hate mail for bringing it,’ he said. ‘But in a banker’s situation, would you want to have to do all that and put yourself at criminal risk if you put yourself?
‘ Bankers are all just saying, ‘We don’t want those nagging problems,’ ‘ said Dowling, who normally a banking consultant. ‘One banker called them toxic.’
There has been protests from civil liberty groups over the federal federal government’s stance they claim that workers are now being treated like pariahs and denied basic rights.
‘ The government that is federal again saying individuals involved within the marijuana business don’t possess rights,’ reported Dale Gieringer, director of California marijuana advocacy group NORML.
Pot Control
Meanwhile, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, Director of FinCEN, the branch of the Treasury which regulates gambling enterprises and banking institutions, was also present at the conference. She referred concerns to her news spokesman, Stephen Hudak, who appeared to verify Dowling’s assertion.
‘FinCEN’s guidance applies to all institutions that are financial under FinCEN regulations, including casinos,’ said Hudak.
Calvery additionally really wants to enforce regulations more rigorously that could require casinos to get their high-rollers to divulge the source of their bankrolls, a move that is unpopular the gambling enterprises. She called gambling enterprises ‘complex financial institutions’ that have to get used to ‘thinking a lot more like other banking institutions.’
The Nevada Gaming Control Board recently ruled that none of its license holders should have anything to accomplish using the state’s legalization of the marijuana trade that is medical. Marijuana has been appropriate for medicinal purposes in Nevada since 2000, however in 2013 the statutory law changed to allow organizations to dispense the medication, providing the go-ahead for 66 outlets throughout the state.
Pennsylvania Sands Penalized for Underage Gambling
The Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania has been fined for allowing minors to gamble every year since it opened while Sheldon Adelson is fond of scaremongering rhetoric about underage gambling online. (Image: osga.com)
The Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, has been fined for allowing teenagers to gamble and consume alcohol on its premises for the fifth time in as many years while Sheldon Adelson rails against the evils of online gambling, stoking fears that it will irreversibly corrupt America’s youth, one of his casinos.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control slapped an $85,000 penalty on Sands Bethworks Gaming for six incidents of underage gambling between June 3rd 2013 and January 29th 2014 at the Sands Casino Bethlehem in Northampton County. Two 17-year-olds, a 19-year-old, and three 20-year-olds was indeed seen playing table games or slot machines during the casino in this period. The total is brought by it to 20 individual incidents of underage gambling over the past five years, which has cost Las Vegas Sand Corp. some $220,000 in fines.
Not Walking the Talk
While this means that the Sands Bethlehem has been penalized every 12 months because it exposed in 2009, it should be noted it’s perhaps not the sole casino within the state to fall foul regarding the authorities in Pennsylvania. Mount Airy Casino in Paradise Township has paid even higher fines into the past, and recently Valley Forge Casino Resort in Montgomery County was handed a $35,000 fine for two incidents that occurred year that is last the second time Valley Forge happens to be penalized for underage gambling violations.
Ironically, Adelson’s Coalition to avoid Internet Gambling (CSIG) is fond of using rhetoric to declare that online casinos prey on underage gamblers, ignoring the fact that regulation means greater protection and brings with it age-verification that is rigorous. CSIG recently created a video clip spot showing a teenage boy playing on his father’s gambling account, as the Coalition steps up its campaign to push by way of a bill that is federal would enforce a blanket ban on Internet gaming.
‘I believe the recent $32.5 million settlement by Apple over in-app purchases made by kids on their parents’ iPads/iPhones is the tip of the iceberg if on the web gambling continues to grow,’ said Coalition National Co-Chair and previous Senator Blanche Lincoln at the advertisement’s launch.
‘If kids can blow $2,600 in the app ‘Tap Pet Hotel,’ then think about exactly what can take place when they get hold of these parent’s password and begin playing blackjack? It is a nightmare situation for parents.’
Hysteria and Hypocrisy
The incident at the Sands Bethlehem highlights the hypocrisy that many feel lies beneath the hysteria at the heart of the Coalition’s argument. Adelson suffered a further blow to their cause recently when his closest ally in Washington, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, had been beaten in Virginia’s Republican primary. Cantor will now stand down, meaning the Coalition has lost a strong backer, and that could hinder its efforts to market the federal bill.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is looking at a bill of its own, supported by State Senator Edwin Erickson, that, if passed would, legalize and manage poker that is online the state. It comes hot on the heels of a present research, commissioned by the state’s Legislative Budget and Finance Committee and conducted by consultancy firm Econsult, which concluded online poker would be described as a huge financial boon to Pennsylvania, creating $129 million in income each year.
