Will Bovada go legal?

Bovada keeps excluding players from more and more states as those states threaten Bovada with legal action, usually because those states have their own licensed gambling offerings. Currently, Bovada rejects 35% of the U.S. population as players, soon to be 42% as Florida has just warned Bovada to take a hike. Pretty soon, it'll be the case that more U.S. residents *can't* play at Bovada than *can* play at Bovada.

So at some point, likely soon, it will behoove Bovada to abandon its unlicensed model and try to get licensed in the legal states. The question is, will it try to do so? Insiders have said going back some years that Bovada seems resistant to change, but this one seems like a no-brainer to me, because they're gonna go extinct otherwise. Then if they try, the question becomes, will the licensed states even have them, or has Bovada burned too many bridges by offering unlicensed gambling for decades?

Discuss.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Bovada keeps excluding players from more and more states as those states threaten Bovada with legal action, usually because those states have their own licensed gambling offerings. Currently, Bovada rejects 35% of the U.S. population as players, soon to be 42% as Florida has just warned Bovada to take a hike. Pretty soon, it'll be the case that more U.S. residents *can't* play at Bovada than *can* play at Bovada.

So at some point, likely soon, it will behoove Bovada to abandon its unlicensed model and try to get licensed in the legal states. The question is, will it try to do so? Insiders have said going back some years that Bovada seems resistant to change, but this one seems like a no-brainer to me, because they're gonna go extinct otherwise. Then if they try, the question becomes, will the licensed states even have them, or has Bovada burned too many bridges by offering unlicensed gambling for decades?

Discuss.
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If they ‘go legal’ can they simultaneously keep their other games for other jurisdictions?

Quote: SOOPOO

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Bovada keeps excluding players from more and more states as those states threaten Bovada with legal action, usually because those states have their own licensed gambling offerings. Currently, Bovada rejects 35% of the U.S. population as players, soon to be 42% as Florida has just warned Bovada to take a hike. Pretty soon, it'll be the case that more U.S. residents *can't* play at Bovada than *can* play at Bovada.

So at some point, likely soon, it will behoove Bovada to abandon its unlicensed model and try to get licensed in the legal states. The question is, will it try to do so? Insiders have said going back some years that Bovada seems resistant to change, but this one seems like a no-brainer to me, because they're gonna go extinct otherwise. Then if they try, the question becomes, will the licensed states even have them, or has Bovada burned too many bridges by offering unlicensed gambling for decades?

Discuss.
link to original post

If they ‘go legal’ can they simultaneously keep their other games for other jurisdictions?
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Probably not. Most U.S. gaming jurisdictions require you to only operated in jurisdictions that they consider properly regulated.

Getting a gaming license in most states is not easy. It requires lots of background checks and many years of financial audits for all of the major owners. Most people that run unlicensed gambling businesses have no interest in having someone go through their many years of financials.

Bovada has been trying to go legal for years. They blocked all people from leqgal state-regulated sites in preparation for a bid at state-regulated licensing. I will vote no if possible.

Quote: SOOPOO

If they ‘go legal’ can they simultaneously keep their other games for other jurisdictions? link to original post

No. Even affiliates (web publishers) can't get accepted to advertise any licensed casino if the affiliate also advertises unlicensed ones.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Quote: SOOPOO

If they ‘go legal’ can they simultaneously keep their other games for other jurisdictions? link to original post

No. Even affiliates (web publishers) can't get accepted to advertise any licensed casino if the affiliate also advertises unlicensed ones.
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So just a guess, but I think they have enough international customers, and likely Americans that circumvent the rules, that it wouldn’t be worth it for them to pay the States high fees for going ‘legal’.

Whether Bovada operates outside the U.S. (it doesn't) is irrelevant, the question is, how do they maximize their revenue within the U.S.? Right now, they're open to most of the U.S. population, but that won't last forever. However, some of the states that have banned them don't have licensed gaming, so once Bovada is excluded from 51% of the U.S. population, that doesn't mean they can legally get players from the other 49%. And even when the # of legal players available to them exceeds the # of players in the other states, then state taxes affect the decision, as you mentioned. At *some* point it's gonna be more profitable for them to go legal and get licensed, but I don't know what that point is, or how soon it will arrive, and another issue is that it might not be *possible* for them to get licensed given that they flouted the laws for so long.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Whether Bovada operates outside the U.S. (it doesn't) is irrelevant, the question is, how do they maximize their revenue within the U.S.? Right now, they're open to most of the U.S. population, but that won't last forever. However, some of the states that have banned them don't have licensed gaming, so once Bovada is excluded from 51% of the U.S. population, that doesn't mean they can legally get players from the other 49%. And even when the # of legal players available to them exceeds the # of players in the other states, then state taxes affect the decision, as you mentioned. At *some* point it's gonna be more profitable for them to go legal and get licensed, but I don't know what that point is, or how soon it will arrive, and another issue is that it might not be *possible* for them to get licensed given that they flouted the laws for so long.
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Maybe walk it back just a bit- what are the enforcement mechanisms available to these states, especially if Bovada does move their operations to a friendly country?

It reminds me a little of when some foreign country finds something on US social media or some other US resource that offends their parochial sensibilities and demands that it be censored. Sometimes that's what happens, other times the site tells them to go and croak, not our job to enforce your backwards and unpopular laws. When I've played on sites that don't accept US players, only the site is the one standing in my way and I can get in with a VPN. But that can result in trouble cashing out.

So if Bovada says "We're moving to another country, we're not even asking where you live because we don't care, you can cash in and out with crypto (and you already can, Bovada handles crypto very well) " - what is any state going to do about it?

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Maybe walk it back just a bit- what are the enforcement mechanisms available to these states, especially if Bovada does move their operations to a friendly country? ...So if Bovada says "We're moving to another country, we're not even asking where you live because we don't care, you can cash in and out with crypto (and you already can, Bovada handles crypto very well) " - what is any state going to do about it? link to original post

Bovada is *already* located in another country. The issue is that Bovada, whether a foreign company or not, is offering its service in the U.S. And Bovada sure feels that enforcement is on the table, because whenever a state threatens Bovada, Bovada stops offering its service in that state. There have certainly been legal actions against offshore operators, including prison for the principals.

Thanks, that was a good article. So it's basically hardball and bullying from our authorities.

The problem I see is that on certain very illegal darknet platforms, everyone there knows everyone else is a criminal and they rely on "honor among thieves," mostly reputation and keeping transactions small enough so that the ding to your reputation will cost you more than what you can gain from screwing anyone. But bettors are typically not criminal and don't like thinking in those terms and they would be turned off by the look and feel of an onion hidden service.

So thinking about it some more, yeah they should probably go legal. Not just to avoid getting in trouble but because legality will enhance their trust. You and I might know Bovada has been around for a long time and is going to pay you, but guys just old enough to bet wouldn't know that and being able to market their product like Draft Kings etc. does would be good for business.

Thank you. I just had a look at the article and I see that since I last updated it five years ago, several states have explicitly legalized online gambling, making the article ambiguous. I just updated it to make it clear that the topic of the article is operators in states where gambling *hasn't* explicitly been legalized.

My guess on the best path for them would be to allow a US operator to use the Bovada brand, similar to how betcris is now in Arizona or Betfred was in Las Vegas for a few years.

Would have to be a competition friendly state right now, like Colorado or Ohio. Or maybe wait for Texas is if there is any chance of that coming soon.