How Underground Casinos Work – 7 Secrets Revealed

 
As I’m not a lawyer, take this statement with a grain of salt. If you’re not sure what is illegal, check your local codes or ask an attorney. The federal definition of illegal gambling is surprising. Although state laws may differ, federal law allows up to 4 people to “run games” for money. In other words, if you live in a state that defines illegal gambling as involving 5 or more people, you may be safe. But there are other rules, too.

These are the key points of the federal law defining illegal gambling business:

• The business violates a state or local law;
• The business involves 5 or more people;
• The business runs for 30 days or longer;
• The business has a gross revenue of $2000 or more in a single day.

It makes sense that federal law chooses to ignore petty gambling. If your kids run a game for a couple of weeks and only a couple hundred dollars is exchanged, they aren’t risking federal prosecution. I gambled with my friends when I was a kid, but only occasionally. But even in states that don’t prohibit home games, if 5 people gamble regularly for a year that’s illegal. Maybe the F.B.I. won’t be knocking down your door, but you’re running an underground casino. Remember to share that at confession.

 
A “social purpose” is any activity that somehow benefits society as a whole. The moral or ethical implications of the social purpose may be negative or positive. A natural example of social purpose is how young stallions drive older males away from their herds. The species benefits from new genes entering the family line.

Underground casinos flourish in places known for their high moral standards. Take Utah, heartland of the Mormon Church; the state has a flourishing underground casino industry.  If people cannot gamble legally, they will gamble illegally. Every community with an underground gambling industry regulates that industry in some way. Society tolerates gambling between friends. Normally, only the predatory gambling operations draw society’s occasional retribution.

 
In the movie Rocky, the hero Rocky Balboa asks old boxing coach Mickey why he always talks down to Rocky. Mickey tells him it’s because “you became a leg breaker”.  Rocky was a good boxer who used his talent to collect money for a loan shark.

An anonymous woman from the Netherlands shared her experiences working in underground casinos with Vice. She witnessed a lot of criminal activity. One customer was robbed as soon as he left with his winnings; other players plotted heists as they gambled. The average good guy family man won’t last long in this world. He’ll either start doing what the other criminals do, or he’ll be run out of the business.  And that’s why organized crime controls the most profitable underground casinos.

Moral arguments against gambling aside, research shows that illegal gambling breeds more crime than legal gambling. There are several reasons why that happens. It doesn’t take a genius to see what is going on. Underground casinos are like black holes of criminal intentions.

The presence of an illegal casino is a sign that “the police are not watching”. If the casino can operate with impunity then so can others. The more people who gamble at an illegal gaming establishment, the more likely some of them are active criminals. Gamblers already take risks. Criminals take even more risks, and now they are gambling in uninhibited environments.

 
If everyone in town can just roll into the local legitimate casino, why would anyone patronize an illegal parlor? Researchers have found several reasons why illegal gambling co-exists with legal gambling. One surprising explanation is that sometimes people just think the illegal gambling is cooler.

Gambling addiction also contributes illegal gaming operations. Addicts are more likely to play at local establishments than to drive 1 or more hours to a legal casino. Wallethub found that gambling addiction runs high in states with both legal and illegal gambling. Estimates vary on what percentage of the population is prone to gambling addiction. The numbers run from about 2% to 10%. Maybe these estimates vary based on region and economic period.

 
The Internet is a real game changer in the world of gambling. Make no mistake, if you want to start gambling today, you can begin wagering in less than an hour. But underground casinos still rely on word of mouth advertising. In 2008, a poker player from New York shared his story with the New York University Street Level magazine. In the article he mentioned how he waited to hear from a friend about a poker room re-opening.

The more people who know about an underground casino the faster the word spreads about it. And because illegal gaming establishments shut down all the time people are willing to share news about new games. The underground gambling scene, just like other underground social activities, thrives on word of mouth.

 
Legal gambling businesses must file reports with government regulatory agencies. In many countries those reports are a matter of public record. Economists, journalists, and lawmakers study these reports to estimate future tax revenues and shape policy.

Economist Jay Zigorsky challenges those ballooning estimates with a thoughtful essay. He takes a recent estimate of illegal American gambling (about $150 billion) and compares it to a projection. Zigorsky’s projection is based on data from the United Kingdom.

If Zigorsky’s assumptions and calculations are correct, then illegal gambling in the United States accounts for a modest $67 billion per year. But no one really knows how much money is being wagered across the land and across the world. The UK data doesn’t include home-based card games.

How does this measure compared to other economic activity in America?

• The US auto industry generates about $700 billion in sales each year
• The US real estate industry generates about $13.6 trillion in sales each year
• US retail sales generated about $5.7 trillion in revenue in 2017

On this scale of economic activity maybe a $100 billion error in estimate doesn’t mean much.  But if you’re really curious about how much money changes hands every year, it’s a guessing game.