FastBets stops accepting deposits from US players

[FastSlots]

Effective immediately FastBets will not be able to accepts deposits from players located in the United States and a number of other jurisdictions. We are neither operated nor based in in the US, however we try to comply with local regulation as good as we can, hence our legal council has suggested to move out of a number jurisdictions.

We're not happy to do this at all. However as a startup we cannot afford to purchase licenses that cost upwards of $1M per year in order to operate in the US (in addition we'd feel terrible if we’d have to structure FastBets in a way that forces players to loose huge amounts of money in order to pay for these licenses). As no one on the team has expressed the wish to spend extended periods of time in jail, we decided to play it safe this time.

[foreveryoung]

Effective immediately FastBets will not be able to accepts deposits from players located in the United States and a number of other jurisdictions. We are neither operated nor based in in the US, however we try to comply with local regulation as good as we can, hence our legal council has suggested to move out of a number jurisdictions.

We're not happy to do this at all. However as a startup we cannot afford to purchase licenses that cost upwards of $1M per year in order to operate in the US (in addition we'd feel terrible if we’d have to structure FastBets in a way that forces players to loose huge amounts of money in order to pay for these licenses). As no one on the team has expressed the wish to spend extended periods of time in jail, we decided to play it safe this time.

Safety is a major ya , primedice had announced that they no longer accepted U.S player before and now fastbets. who's next?
is bitcoin freedom no longer exist?

[sherbyspark]

Was it due to a notice, or was it just a precautionary measure to take such a step ? I just hope not to see a lot of other sites follow the same footstep. Taking precautionary measures unless there is any problem , does not seem much necessary .

[koshgel]

I'm guessing this is precautionary..

I hope this trend doesn't continue into the sportsbooks 

[FastSlots]

I'm guessing this is precautionary..

I hope this trend doesn't continue into the sportsbooks 

This is in fact only precautionary. We have based this decision on publicly available information. The main reason is that I cannot see a future where the Micon incident remains an isolated case.

Was it due to a notice, or was it just a precautionary measure to take such a step ? I just hope not to see a lot of other sites follow the same footstep. Taking precautionary measures unless there is any problem , does not seem much necessary .

Well, I wouldn't say that what is happening to Bryan Micon is not a problem...
 

Safety is a major ya , primedice had announced that they no longer accepted U.S player before and now fastbets. who's next?
is bitcoin freedom no longer exist?

It's very sad to do this but I do not see another solution at this point. I'm guessing bitcoin freedom does exists, it's just that it does not exist everywhere...

[foreveryoung]

Safety is a major ya , primedice had announced that they no longer accepted U.S player before and now fastbets. who's next?
is bitcoin freedom no longer exist?

It's very sad to do this but I do not see another solution at this point. I'm guessing bitcoin freedom does exists, it's just that it does not exist everywhere...

i thought like that , i know its maybe hard decision for every company to blocked access to most valuable customer like U.S player . but maybe it is still possibe playing using vpn for U.S player?

[twister]

I'm guessing this is precautionary..

I hope this trend doesn't continue into the sportsbooks 

I guess more and more btc gambling sites are going to take these "precautions" now, don't know if it's really necessary or not but due to this we might see an increase in VPN sales, because that's the only option US players have if a lot of sites do this.

[LiQuidx]

I'm guessing this is precautionary..

I hope this trend doesn't continue into the sportsbooks 

I guess more and more btc gambling sites are going to take these "precautions" now, don't know if it's really necessary or not but due to this we might see an increase in VPN sales, because that's the only option US players have if a lot of sites do this.

Well it is necessary since they have to do that in order to be covered legally..

[Mayer Amschel]

After Primedice taking this smart decision i can see all the players taking this step too. Its always safe to remain AWAY from the US law when it comes to BTC based companies.

- Mayer Amschel

[FastSlots]

After Primedice taking this smart decision i can see all the players taking this step too. Its always safe to remain AWAY from the US law when it comes to BTC based companies.

- Mayer Amschel

I agree, but it's also incredibly sad. I love the values that the US stands for, like personal freedom and democracy. However I do think that there is some amount of government overreach going on. That Micon case is just one example of many. Threatening someone with 10 years in prison for operating an online casino just seems off to me. Especially if you are allowed to do exactly that if you pay a ridiculously expensive license ($500k per year).

By the way, I think that people should contribute the the Bryan Micon Defense fund, I have done so already
http://www.gofundme.com/t7q32aw

I'm guessing this is precautionary..
I hope this trend doesn't continue into the sportsbooks 

I guess more and more btc gambling sites are going to take these "precautions" now, don't know if it's really necessary or not but due to this we might see an increase in VPN sales, because that's the only option US players have if a lot of sites do this.

Well it is necessary since they have to do that in order to be covered legally..

I think what is going on is some sort of a chicken run: many operators will block the US eventually but they want to do it after their competition bc they will get lots of players and action this way. The winner of that chicken run will become quite rich, but is also likely to get into a lot of legal trouble.

I agree with LiQuidx that if a casino wants to stick around, it will have to comply in one way or another.

[sherbyspark]

Was it due to a notice, or was it just a precautionary measure to take such a step ? I just hope not to see a lot of other sites follow the same footstep. Taking precautionary measures unless there is any problem , does not seem much necessary .

Well, I wouldn't say that what is happening to Bryan Micon is not a problem...
 

If its not , I still don't understand the reason, if you are not based in US then. None of the government organizations will come after your site, because if one goes down the other can be created, Its not like the Megaupload case against Dotcom, wherein his was only the big company there.

[sandy47bt]

So, after Primedice & FastBest, who will continue stops accept deposit from US
Maybe every bitcoin gambling site will stop accept deposit from US & all of us from US have to use VPN/Proxy

Government can't stop bitcoin, but they can stop their users

[arallmuus]

If its not , I still don't understand the reason, if you are not based in US then. None of the government organizations will come after your site, because if one goes down the other can be created, Its not like the Megaupload case against Dotcom, wherein his was only the big company there.

The reason is simple. Precautions. Better to be safe than sorry. That could also be PrimeDice reason of no longer accepting deposits from the US player. There is no guarantee that someone that is operating gambling sites that is not based on US will be safe if US decided to put on some resources to track on the owner of the sites.

I thought you may be misunderstanding this post

Well, I wouldn't say that what is happening to Bryan Micon is not a problem...

Literally means that fastslot is taking the consideration based on this matter too , CMIIW

[sherbyspark]

If its not , I still don't understand the reason, if you are not based in US then. None of the government organizations will come after your site, because if one goes down the other can be created, Its not like the Megaupload case against Dotcom, wherein his was only the big company there.

The reason is simple. Precautions. Better to be safe than sorry. That could also be PrimeDice reason of no longer accepting deposits from the US player. There is no guarantee that someone that is operating gambling sites that is not based on US will be safe if US decided to put on some resources to track on the owner of the sites.

I thought you may be misunderstanding this post

Well, I wouldn't say that what is happening to Bryan Micon is not a problem...

Literally means that fastslot is taking the consideration based on this matter too , CMIIW

Well the risk is always there of landing into some legal trouble in the future, but its too less or non-existent if you are based in another country, and are accepting bitcoins . There has actually been no case of any such site, based outside US landing into any trouble as such. If the government wishes  to shut them down, they would rather just ask the ISP's to block couple of sites, instead of going after them in their countries.

And it will probably be the major casinos or sportsbooks which will be affected, which would give the smaller ones enough time to shut down.

[MUFC]

Effective immediately FastBets will not be able to accepts deposits from players located in the United States and a number of other jurisdictions. We are neither operated nor based in in the US, however we try to comply with local regulation as good as we can, hence our legal council has suggested to move out of a number jurisdictions.

We're not happy to do this at all. However as a startup we cannot afford to purchase licenses that cost upwards of $1M per year in order to operate in the US (in addition we'd feel terrible if we’d have to structure FastBets in a way that forces players to loose huge amounts of money in order to pay for these licenses). As no one on the team has expressed the wish to spend extended periods of time in jail, we decided to play it safe this time.

Safety is a major ya , primedice had announced that they no longer accepted U.S player before and now fastbets. who's next?
is bitcoin freedom no longer exist?

The beauty of bitcoin is that you can still gamble with them and get around these sorts of regulatory restrictions. Get a proxy or use tor and you can gamble just fine.

[shanem]

It is sad that many companies don't accept US players due to their government interfering.
US players have no choice but to use VPN to use the services.

[erpbridge]

It is sad that many companies don't accept US players due to their government interfering.
US players have no choice but to use VPN to use the services.

You could just use TOR, vpn's probably going to cost you money. This is definitely going to be a blow towards bitcoin gambling if the trend continues to other sites.

[MUFC]

It is sad that many companies don't accept US players due to their government interfering.
US players have no choice but to use VPN to use the services.

You could just use TOR, vpn's probably going to cost you money. This is definitely going to be a blow towards bitcoin gambling if the trend continues to other sites.

Plenty of free VPNs if you don't want to pay but they don't cost much at all and are worth it if you're regularly use things that are blocked. Proxies are usually much faster than tor which can be very slow at times.

[arallmuus]

If its not , I still don't understand the reason, if you are not based in US then. None of the government organizations will come after your site, because if one goes down the other can be created, Its not like the Megaupload case against Dotcom, wherein his was only the big company there.

The reason is simple. Precautions. Better to be safe than sorry. That could also be PrimeDice reason of no longer accepting deposits from the US player. There is no guarantee that someone that is operating gambling sites that is not based on US will be safe if US decided to put on some resources to track on the owner of the sites.

I thought you may be misunderstanding this post

Well, I wouldn't say that what is happening to Bryan Micon is not a problem...

Literally means that fastslot is taking the consideration based on this matter too , CMIIW

Well the risk is always there of landing into some legal trouble in the future, but its too less or non-existent if you are based in another country, and are accepting bitcoins . There has actually been no case of any such site, based outside US landing into any trouble as such. If the government wishes  to shut them down, they would rather just ask the ISP's to block couple of sites, instead of going after them in their countries.

And it will probably be the major casinos or sportsbooks which will be affected, which would give the smaller ones enough time to shut down.

There is a risk about it and thats the fact, better to play it safe than regret in the future. No one will know how the future comes. For now, I would say that there will be alot more major which the US will consider if they decided to "pursue" the owner of those sites but still you wouldnt want the feds to be knocking on your front door. So I do think that fastslot decision is right to no longer accept deposit from  the US player

[FastSlots]

Having read your comments I think that I might be overly cautious. On the other hand my legal council was of the opinion that if a crackdown happens then the risk to operators would be quite high. I am of the opinion that some sort of crackdown will happen eventually (don't know when obviously), and I'd be quite happy to not be part of it.

I'm also not sure that not being based in the us is a sufficient protection from prosecution there. Stunna also doesn't seem to be based in the US and he has made the same move. I'm sure that stunna has to notch legal advisors, and that he has not taken this decision lightly.

In addition to that I must say that the thread of getting into legal trouble has been a bit of a weight on my shoulders. I'm certain to be loosing money through this move, but I've gained in life quality.