Nevada casino offered links to Curacao gambling sites

Nevada gaming regulator has accused a Reno casino operator of re-directing its customers to internationally licensed online gambling sites.

Ten days ago, on May 11, Nevada’s Gaming Control Board filed a court complaint for disciplinary action against BCH Gaming Reno, operator of the Boomtown Casino Hotel, who is charged with two violations of Nevada gaming legislative and also violating the 1961 federal Wire Act, for which the GCB is seeking unspecified financial penalties.

The complaint indicates that in September 2016, Boomtown – which lacks a Nevada interactive gaming license – decided it wanted to get in on the free-play social casino action that was then sweeping the land-based gaming industry.

Trouble was, Boomtown apparently determined that actually licensing some social casino software would be too expensive, so Boomtown instead added two links to its existing website under the banners of “Play Online” and “Play Even When Away!”

The two links connected customers to some 15 different online gambling sites, all of them associated with either Affiliate Edge (formerly ClubWorld Casino) or Deck Media, both of which are located and licensed in Curacao. Eleven of these sites offered real-money gambling in addition to the free-play variety, and three of these real-money sites claimed US players were welcome.

Boomtown was apparently content to be earning commissions by steering customers to the Curacao sites – some of which featured banner ads promoting Boomtown – but a customer smelled a rat and contacted the GCB in March 2017 to inquire as to the legitimacy of Boomtown’s online offering.

Last year in August , a Gaming Control Board agent contacted Boomtown to inform them that the casino was legally up the creek. The Gaming Control Board then determined that Boomtown’s entire digital presence was run by a single graphic designer, who “had little, if any, understanding of gaming laws.”

However, Boomtown “exercised little, if any, oversight concerning this employee’s actions” and happily cashed its online commission checks even after an online customer questioned the links’ legality. Looks like this Boom(town) is about to blow.

Source: CalvinAyre