Also Russia is not a good example as online gambling is heavily illegal over there.
Russia does not recognize virtual currency as money or even tangible asset, therefore running Bitcoin-only casino in Russia is the same as running non-commercial gambling site like pokerth.com (which is legal of course).
Tell this to the Russian government... I can bet my house they won't care, if they see a roulette table on your site or a slot machine, they will shut you down like 1 2 3. Online casinos are illegal in Russia as well as land-based casinos, except for one particular territory, which is supposed to be the next Las Vegas, but hasn't been built yet. There have already been numerous takedowns with arrests and prison sentences. Goldfishka is a good example of such a case. There is even a casino blacklist, where most online casinos land eventually and are being blocked by the ISPs. The system in Russia doesn't really work the way many of you would imagine. To run an online casino there you need to pay "security" to influent underground people (vory v zakone) and they expect it, who can secure you the government to not touch you and let you operate. This style of operations accounts for the whole CHГ. You might try to run "rogue" today, but what will happen when they knock on your door tomorrow? Without paying the appropriate amounts, you have no chance of success in Russia, you might even get killed.
In Europe it depends on the country:
France, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Germany - These countries have their own licenses, which an online casino or a sportsbook must have in order to operate and not end up in a legal battle with the particular Government.
UK - this is the only place where outside licensing is recognized, but only if it is from another EU state. A Curacao or Kahwanake license for example is not recognized.
Netherlands, Romania, and the rest are all either in the process of legalizing it with their own particular licenses or consider doing it. They are still considered grey area by many large operators.
(might have missed a country or two, but you get the picture)
China - Online gambling is illegal, and most of the activity is ran through the Triad networks of agents on street level.
Canada - BC has it's own license. The rest of Canada can be ran with a Kahwanake license.
USA - Until 2006 online gambling was considered grey area. Then the UIGEA was introduced, which outlawed the payment methods used for online gambling. However the gambling activity by itself remained intact. In 2011, DOJ released an opinion that the Wire Act as well as UIGEA are mostly set towards sports betting. This opened up a whole avenue for land-casino to legalize online casinos and poker. A federal bill won't pass anytime soon, not in the next 2-3 years (my opinion), however many States have introduced their own legislature controlling it, such as Delaware, Washington, NJ, Nevada, Illinois, New York. In some it is legal in others it is illegal. Other states are in the process.
It doesn't matter where you are incorporated, you need to comply with the laws of the Governments of the countries from which you accept players.
What is gambling by definition?Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as "the stakes") on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize.
Where does bitcoin stand and why all the "bitcoin isn't a currency and therefore it is legal" talks are irrelevant:
At current timing bitcoin is undefined by any government. They still wonder what exactly they should do with it and how should they tax it and regulate it. "Is it a bird, is it a plane, or a superman???" However, the moment bitcoin is fully legalized, it will either be considered "money" or "something of material value" (commodity). In either case, any online casino that accepts bitcoin payments (including us) will fall under the same rules and regulations as any standard online casino. It will need to comply with the particular laws of each government it operates in, or fall in the "illegal" sector. On top of that ALL Governments are well known for arrests, court cases and hefty fines and backtaxes. A good reference would be the sportingbet and partygaming and of course pokerstars settlements with the US, sportingbet paying backtaxes in Spain, partygaming CEO currently being indicted in France for backtaxes for before it was regulated and the list goes on and on.
Consider the bitcoin gambling business a grey area, which will eventually be regulated.
The SD and StrikeSapphire owners get this quite well and that is why they don't accept any US players. On our end we have made the decision to accept US players and we know the future complications involved.
Note: Consider this a personal opinion.
