Do you need a licence to host say a lottery website or gambling site? I'm very interested in this, but don't know the legal stuff first. If anyone has any advice, it would really help me if you could post it
If you plan on hosting it in the United States you are going to run into a lot of trouble (I don't think gambling sites are still allowed unless they operate on a membership system).
ok thanks danielbruzual, so if I design a membership system and allow them to login and select how many tickets they want to pay for the lottery, that would be allowed?
Yes, you probably need a license. I know that you are not allowed to host such sites on a US server as it is against the law. But it appears that you should not have much issue in the UK http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/03/uk_net_gambling_haven/ However, it still means you may need to get licenses as they do not want it to end up as a Money Laundering Haven http://www.out-law.com/page-4087 Check with your lawyers as to what the best cause of action would be.
Here are a few more links to look at http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/Client/detail.asp?ContentId=38 http://www.gamblinglicenses.com/LicencesDatabaseDetail.cfm?Licenses_ID=77&Region=Europe http://www.onlinecasinoconditions.com/ukcasinos.html All the best. The only real issue will be how you are going to collect bets and send winnings.
You know becoming an affiliate might be a better way to approach this. They have schedules where you will be getting percentage of the income for life. And you don't have to worry about security, licenses, etc. You still have to respect the laws in the USA though. www.cj.com has a lot of products in this area as well (but they will remind you not to run anything if you live in the USA) On another note... they have one that says is legal www.e-pokerusa.com but it seems very sketchy to me. It's listed on CJ though. Cheers!
Anything that smells of a lottery is probably illegal in the United States. Even if you get a license in another country, if you live in the US, you are still probably violating a law. No way a state in the US will grant anyone the right to host an internet lottery.
I just noticed your location is the UK. Laws are very different there than in the States. If you don't accept US bets, then you have nothing to worry about US-wise. If you do accept US bets, you might be violating US law, even if you have a UK license.
Hi, I was starting a gambling site and I had done a lot of research regarding the gambling laws. You can legally run a gambling site in the UK as long as you dont accept US players or players from other countries where online gambling is banned. To run a online gambling site you can get a gambling license from various countries easily. My suggestion would be try Costa Rica, Panama or Antigua. You can easily get a gambling license within a month for $15,000/yr. I got mine from Panama. You sites must be hosted outside USA and other countries where gambling is banned. Again hosting in UK is perfectly fine. Are you planning to start just a Lottery Site, Online Casino, Poker Site, or a Sportsbook? Again I agree with @charlinks that if you want to play safe or are on a tight budget then you may wanna consider becoming a affiliate but then the level of earning from running your own Gambling site is at a whole new level. Also keep in mind starting your own gambling site is not cheap. A decent Casino Software costs around $50,000- $300,000. Also if you want to run such a site successfully be prepared to spend at least $20,000 initially on marketting per month. Later you can up that to 100k/mo. If you dont spend at such levels your business wont be successful. Anyways if you have any Q's in particular, PM me I will be more than happy to answer you PS: I was looking for a partner for my gambling venture, I have a thread opened in the business section. Hit me up if you are interested in knowing more details about the venture.