Professional certified legal translation services and multilingual legal translations play an important role for gaming and casino industry. Countries, states and regions all have particular laws that either prohibit or restrict gambling. However, with the growing popularity of online gambling – which may allow a player residing in a jurisdiction with gambling restrictions to gamble ‘within’ a gambling-friendly jurisdiction – the question of how to apply prohibitions and restrictions becomes unclear. Yet, such legal bodies as the European Court of Justice (ECJ), US Supreme Court and such international agencies as the World Trade Organization (WTO) have each issued decisions helping to clarify this area of the law.
In deciding which controls will withstand judicial scrutiny, the starting point is always precedents and the question of whether or not there is a local law in place restricting foreign legal gaming sites from taking bets from local residents – which may require the use of a foreign language translation. Chances are, there is not as most local governments are either not aware of the issue or do not like to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations. Thus the need for precedent. As a case in point, in the US the Interstate Wire Act has been used to apply to all forms of gambling transmitted across state lines. However, the actual act itself was enacted to limit the use of telegraph wires for illegal gambling purposes. Although this law was enacted well before the internet and phones, the US Department of Justice takes the stance that the law covers all forms of gambling. For this reason, the issue tends to go to federal courts.
The same can be said in most foreign jurisdictions, meaning that one will have to spend time reviewing case law to understand the precedent and general stance of the law – often a task requiring foreign language translation.
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