Hello everyone,
Like many affiliate managers I have received numerous questions about the new online gaming law. I blogged about this at
www.blog.jacksnqueens.com and it is fairly lengthy so I wont repeat it all here. In short once the law is signed it will be illegal for online gaming sites to take funds from US players. It will not be illegal for the players just the operators/owners/beneficiaries of the gaming sites. This means that the online gaming world has moved from the quasi-legal status to a clearly criminal status.
As affiliates you have to decide what your position is going to be. There are three basic options.
1. If you want to avoid any possible legal problems then promote only to players outside of the U.S. and to gaming sites with policies of not accepting U.S. players.
2. Promote only to players outside of the U.S. but still have relationships with gaming sites that are still accepting U.S. players. This is still perfectly safe but you do run the risk that some of your players sent to the gaming sites that are still operating in the U.S. will be lost if the gaming site gets shut down.
3. Promote to players in the U.S. If you pursue this option you are potentially at risk of criminal prosecution. The likelihood of enforcement to the affiliate level is very small but real. The new law is specifically after the gaming sites themselves.
So if you choose options 1 or 2 then you have nothing to worry about and simply need to ramp up your marketing outside the U.S. to make up for your lost income streams.
If you choose option 3 you need to understand the following:
1. The gaming sites you will be working with will be breaking the law.
2. It is a different mindset to operate in a criminal environment than to operate in a quasi-legal environment.
I am not advising anyone to do this, but I would expect a successful affiliate who wants to continue to operate in the U.S. player market to do the following:
1. To have no record of what country or IP people linked from on their site.
2. To not affiliate with any sites that have publicly stated that they are accepting U.S. players and therefore definitely violating U.S. law.
3. To stop asking questions in public forums or emails about player policies. If you want to know if a site is taking U.S. players create an account and since most of you are from the U.S. that will tell you the answer.
4. Host your affiliate sites offshore. This is very easy to do and I know of a good hosting company here in Costa Rica.
5. Stay away from public forum topics and emails that discuss these legal issues.
One last comment on the many companies that have publicly stated that they will be taking U.S. players. There is a legal term for what these companies have done, its called....a confession. Confessions are great for prosecutors and bad for defendants. Remember what you say can and will be used against you.
I will close with an example: Let's say two affiliates choose option three. One affiliate ignores the above and hosts his site in the U.S., lets everyone know he owns it, affiliates with a publicly declared violator, is frequently in forums discussing the issues, and tracks his people visiting his site.
The other affiliate hosts his site offshore, never comments on the legal issues in public forums and emails, only affiliates with sites that haven't confessed in public to violating U.S. law, has the ownership of all his sites in an offshore corporation with bearer shares, and doesn't track his visitors.
Now of the two examples which do you think the prosecutor is going to go after?
Here endeth the lesson.
Blake
Affiliate Manager
JacksNQueens.com
Analysis of new gaming law and affiliate options
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