Largely the legal status of online bingo is dependent on the laws of the country in which it operates. In some countries online bingo is legal, in other countries it isn’t. In fact, among the top three largest markets for online bingo, only in the third largest, the UK is bingo strictly legal. In the US, bingo laws tend to vary state to state, and in Japan (the second largest market) online bingo has a very tenuous legal status (with most betting taking place through off-shore servers). However, even in the UK bingo sites are subject to a number of laws that keep them strictly regulated.
The USA
The legality of online bingo, as far as the federal government is concerned, was established in 2002 by the Court of Appeals—while forbidding interstate sports betting, they left games of chance unencumbered by interstate restrictions. Though in 2006, the Safe Port Act prevented banks from performing financial transactions with online bingo sites. However, this act did not outlaw private individuals transacting with online bingo sites through third-party organisations. Equally individuals were still legally allowed to bet in these sites. The act did, however, give banks the right to terminate relationships with clients who were suspected in participating in bingo games.
In 2007, the Internet Gambling and Enforcement act was written and passed as an amendment making ‘online games of skill’ including bingo an exception to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 which had outlawed them. However, gaming is ultimately left to the authority of the state and 11 states (including Nevada) do not grant legal status to online bingo.
The UK
The Gaming act of 1968 made non-charity cash bingo a popular and widespread phenomenon, and also meant that the explosive growth of site providing bingo could go unimpeded by legal considerations. However, when the UK Gambling act of 2005 was finally implemented online bingo sites were required licensures to operate in the UK. One main facets of the industry that the act governed was the advertisement of online bingo. For example, only domestic bingo sites (as well as those from a very select group of countries) could advertise in the UK, and thus effectively shutting foreign bingo sites out of the British market. Advertising also from then on had to adhere to standards put forth by the Advertising Standards Authority, which mostly meant that bingo adverts couldn’t target children.