I recently learned of a new problem gamblers from the states are going to need to be aware. It seems that a player who had signed up at Bella Vegas casino (powered by Microgaming software) did so while being under age for the gambling law in her vicinity, yet still being old enough to meet the age minimum shown on the casino web page (turns out the that is the casino's required minimum age to play, but not the only age requirement that must be met in order to play and expect to get paid). The casino's stance is that they cannot be expected to keep up on all the laws in all the places in the world and therefore it is the player's responsibility to be sure they are legal to play at the casino in their location.

She was 18 at the time and living in the state of Nevada where she isn't considered old enough to gamble legally. However the casino accepted her and in fact;  paid her for 2 or 3 cashins previous to the time she got caught.

It was not until she had won a nice jackpot and tried to cash-out an amount exceeding $10,000, (this being the magic amount and I'll elaborate on this further in next paragraph)  that the casino took notice of her age and replied to her that because she was underage they were not paying her except the amount she had deposited (which I grant you is better than nothing and IMHO after giving it a lot of thought: more of an effort than I suspect a lot of places would have done).

What is disturbing to me is the fact that they observed the laws where the player is located, in this case it was Nevada where in fact there is little grey area in that it is a law that it is illegal to gamble online in that state. In many if not most states this is still up for legal debate and very much a grey area. However not so in Nevada. My concern is the begging question: if the girl had been 22,  but the casino saw she lived in Nevada where they know its illegal to gamble online: would they have paid her?

To the time of this writing I have not been able to get a definitive reply other than the casino falls back on its T&Cs which basically state they don't have to pay if you're participating in an illegal manner.

What you must take away from all of this is the fact that any time there is a transaction of more than $10,000 to someone in the states, it alerts the feds automatically to investigate for possible money laundering.

Because the casinos are of mind that they can operate without drawing undue attention from Uncle Sam as long as they are not accepting underage players,  they double check all their bases before letting go that large of a sum because they know the matter will be investigated in detail by Uncle Sam.

That was when it was discovered this player was underage. The casino fell all over itself to avoid a public scandal which is why it cheerfully refunded the player's deposits (all of them) despite the fact the player had cashed out multiple times in the past (which she got to keep).

What my understanding of all this is that if you win a large amount that it is a lot wiser to withdraw the money in small amounts over a period of time rather than have that lump sum show up all at once and risk the "twice-over" by federal and possibly state investigators, not too mention the casino itself becoming a possible hurdle to overcome (if you are living in an area they know to be illegal to gamble online they may choose not to pay you).

I realize this is a rinky-dink way of doing things especially when you consider the extent of professionalism that goes into the creation, management and day to day operation of a reputable online casino but it seems the best way to make the transaction painless for all parties involved and hopefully uneventful as possible.