Online Gaming - A Question Of Age

Published: Friday, February 03, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

ONLINE GAMING - A QUESTION OF AGE

Just when is a Nevadan "underage" or "legal" when it comes to online casino gaming?

An at times heated debate took place on a online gaming message board this week around the question of underage online gambling.

A Bella Vegas Online Casino player from Nevada who's winnings had been disqualified but deposits returned for being "underage" initiated the thread to protest, and the resulting exchanges showed that complex casino T&Cs, allied to the requirements of individual states in the confusing US market can be a problem.

In this case the over 18 but under 21 years old player registered without difficulty at the casino and for a period of three months gambled through 17 transactions and 3 minor payouts without the casino objecting.

Then she was lucky enough to make a big win...or perhaps unlucky, because the size of her withdrawal seemed to trigger the casino ID verification systems and she was adjudged "underage" Appeals to respected watchdogs like Casinomeister and eCOGRA were unsuccessful, and the young player took to the message boards.

Her argument is that in terms of the casino T&Cs she is not underage.

Bella Vegas T&Cs say inter alia that:

The casino is limited to individuals of legal age of majority in their jurisdiction.

Legal age of majority in Nevada (the player's residential jurisdiction) is 18 yrs (19 if still at college) Gambling age in Nevada is 21. It would therefore appear on the face of this, that the player was not underage in terms of majority, but should not have been gambling anyway. And why was she allowed to register if this was the case? However.....

The casino's T&Cs also state that "Participation in the activities and games (the "Game") of this casino are open only to residents of those jurisdictions where such participation is legal."

Nevada has not legalised online gaming, which would suggest that in addition to being below the land gambling age in Nevada the player in this case was in any case breaching State law by gambling online! But she was nevertheless allowed to register at the casino and play for three months, and chances are the casino does no more to enforce this condition than place the onus on the player.

You cannot play under any circumstances if you are not at least eighteen years of age...the player met this requirement, but the other T&Cs and her State of residence would seem to make this rule irrelevant.

However, should the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction be older than eighteen - you shall abide by those restrictions.

In this case her age of majority in Nevada was 18 (19 if in college) but the State forbids internet gambling, and the land gambling age is 21!

Lawyer's caveats are one thing, but as the player points out in the real world things are not so clearcut:

"There are 8 states in the USA where it is not legal to gamble online, are they [the casinos] going to return deposits to all players from New York, Arizona or Vegas ?"

On the face of it, it would appear there is fault on both sides in this dispute and the more reasonable among the debaters have suggested that this would be a good case for further negotiations between the player and the casino.

Certainly it seems that the casino involved needs to re-examine and tighten up its measures against underage gambling.