On Thursday, June 4th, 2015, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) Director David Rebuck issued a Director’s Advisory Bulletin to clarify the Division’s stance on online gambling affiliates who have marketed unlicensed gaming sites to New Jersey residents. Specifically, Rebuck discussed the possibility of future legal trouble or licensing problems for such affiliates.
In the Bulletin, Rebuck mentioned a letter sent to a half dozen large affiliates on April 17th, 2014, telling them that they must remove links and advertisements to illegal online gambling sites (namely, offshore sites that were not licensed in the Garden State) or face the state’s legal wrath. A number of sites stepped forward in the poker community and raised their hands as being targeted: PokerSource.com, RakeBrain.com, RaketheRake.com, CardsChat.com, and PokerSites.com. The letter spelled out for the recipients which parts of the law they were violating (emphasis in the letter itself):
a. Promoting Gambling Defined. A person is guilty of promoting gambling when he knowingly….
(2) Engages in conduct, which materially aids any form of gambling activity. Such conduct includes but is not limited to conduct directed toward the creation or establishment of the particular game, contest, scheme, device or activity involved, toward the acquisition or maintenance of premises, paraphernalia, equipment or apparatus therefor, toward the solicitation or inducement of persons to participate therein, toward the actual conduct of the playing phases thereof, toward the arrangement of any of its financial or recording phases, or toward any other phase of its operation.
The letter also quoted the applicable portion of the criminal code which stated those found in violation of the law “…shall be subject to a fine of not more than $25,000 and in the case of a person other than a natural person, to a fine of not more than $100,000 any other appropriate disposition authorized by subsection b. of N.J.S.2C:43-2.”
Rebuck stated in last week’s Bulletin that the state will not take legal action against affiliates who promoted illegal sites after New Jersey’s online gaming regime began (November 26th, 2013) nor will it consider affiliates’ actions after that date when it comes to future licensing as long as the affiliates stop promoting illegal sites within 150 days of June 4th and the CEO or COO of the affiliate submits a notarized certification confirming the promotion has stopped. Affiliates who had previously gotten themselves into compliance do not need to submit the certification.
Rebuck also addressed whether or not affiliates would be in any sort of trouble for advertising illegal gambling sites after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) was passed, particularly since actual gaming operators are having their past actions held against them. He said affiliates are in the clear:
The Division, after careful consideration, has made a determination that the conduct of affiliates after UIGEA can be distinguished from the past conduct of online operators and payment processors. Many affiliates certainly assisted online gaming operators in identifying and driving United States players to online gambling sites after the passage of UIGEA and received compensation from online operators for their services. However, the fact is that affiliates did not actually consummate the gaming transaction or process the payment of such activity. Some may say this is a distinction without a difference. The Division disagrees. While affiliates were paid under various compensation models for marketing to U.S. players after UIGEA, there was clearly some legitimate uncertainty as to whether the actions of an affiliate promoting or marketing to an illegal gambling site was, in and of itself, an illegal act. The same cannot be said for the online gaming operator itself or payment processors.
