Help Needed: Best Practices for Legally Running a Casino Affiliate Business in Illinois

[limoxt]

Hi guys,

I have some questions about obtaining a casino affiliate license and could really use some guidance. Despite researching online, the information I've found has been quite unclear. I'm hoping someone here with expertise can help me understand the best course of action.

I’m a foreigner living in Illinois on a working visa. A few months ago, I built a casino affiliate website and started promoting various casinos, both American and offshore. I want to ensure that I operate legally, run my business properly, and handle my taxes without any risk. Based on my research, I have come up with a few possible solutions, but I'm unsure which is the best. Here are my proposals:

1. Operate the business individually without registering any company or license: Is this legal? Are there risks involved? Can I report taxes properly this way?
2. Register a company in Illinois and apply for a casino affiliate license here: This seems like the most challenging option with high costs ($5000 license fee and $5000 annual renewal) and significant effort required.
3. Register a normal company in Illinois without a casino affiliate license, but only promote offshore casinos: qIs this legal? Are there any risks? Can I report taxes properly in this scenario?
4. Register a company and apply for a casino affiliate license in another state where it's easier and cheaper to obtain: Is this a feasible solution? If so, which state would you recommend?
5. Register a company and apply for an affiliate license in a third-party country where it's easier and cheaper to obtain: Is this a viable option? If so, which country would you suggest?

Are there any other better and feasible solutions? Your advice and insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[TheGooner]

If you thought that getting online advice from random people in a forum was the best way to legally protect yourself from Uncle Sam and his tax collecting goons .... you should stay out of the business entirely !!

OK - Harsh - but WTF where you thinking ?? :-o

Having said that ...

The 5 minute research I did suggested that outfits like Fanduel, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook and BetRivers are licensed programs for Illinois. You be better off registering there as a potential affiliate based in Illinois and seeing what hoops you have to jump through to comply. It's in their interests to keep up to date and help affiliates get legal.

From there you will have a good understanding of local rules for Illinois.

As a generic rule, the closer you are to the jurisdiction, the bigger the expectation to follow local rules. IF your website and company are registered and showing a Chicago address then all your Illinois promotions have to be squeaky clean.

If you want to legally promote to Illinois residents - then you need to be locally registered as an affiliate according to state law - and only promote licensed programs. Illinois rules and laws may also prevent you from offering offshore options as a locally licensed affiliate.

What you do for the rest of the US (if you can find a way of geo-fencing Illinois readers) , and for countries outside like Canada, UK, Australia and Europe will be more generic - you could be either an individual or company and probably won't need to worry about licensing but will have content rules to follow in each jurisdiction - like warnings, r18 signs and links to problem gambling sites etc,.

Personally, I don't promote ANYTHING specifically to my country (New Zealand) as they have rules around restricting advertising but not the actual provision of games - different places go different ways.

(Yet - I see plenty of offshore people targeting NZ - even using local co.nz websites - and many offshore affs saying it's a good market despite the rules - and they can probably get away with it because local enforcement won't bother to go offshore - although they might close the website)

Again as I say - the closer you are to the target audience the cleaner you need to be. And yes you always MUST report EARNINGS and TAXES locally. Just call it "advertising and marketing" income.