Best offshore sportsbooks for online betting?

Andrew Rivera17 said:Honestly, BetMGM is easily the absolute worst sportsbook out there. I spent two years over at Bet365—I mostly stick to tennis and playing the handicaps—but the options here are just pathetic. Yesterday I actually hit a $200 on DraftKings, withdrew it, and the cash should be in my account by tomorrow without any of those typical headaches. But when you factor in all the fees from Skrill, Neteller, or whatever other service you're stuck using, you end up losing like 10 to 20 percent of your winnings just to get your own money back.

DraftKings has a pretty weak selection and their processing is slow.

silverridge3 said:DraftKings' selection and settlement process suck.

Personally, I actually dig their odds and how they handle settlements. Half the time, I’m snagging better lines there than I am on Bet365.
Arguing over lines and payouts is pointless. Everyone has a different take, and it really just comes down to what you're betting on.

I don't really see the point in limiting myself to just one sportsbook
I've got Skrill, but I also use bank transfers and keep accounts open at about twenty different books. I just hunt around for the best exchange rate on a single or an accumulator, move the cash there, and make my deposit

Hey there!
I requested a withdrawal using my wife's credit card, and DraftKings actually approved it—they even sent an email saying it's good to go, though the transfer might take up to 10 days. But from what I've been reading, it sounds like you can't actually pull money back onto a Mastercard like that. Should I just assume those funds are gone forever? Like, will they just vanish instead of bouncing back to my account? If anyone else has dealt with these kinds of silly mistakes, please let me know how it went. Thanks!

You didn't mention which sportsbook you're using, but if it’s a major, reputable one like DraftKings, you shouldn't run into any issues. Typically, the funds will hit the same Mastercard you used for the withdrawal. If for some reason the transfer fails, the money should just revert back to your site balance, though I expect the payout to go through without a hitch. That's my take on it. Hopefully, this helps. Best! 😁

🐔

Does anyone have any insight regarding the recent notice from the IRS? I’m curious how they actually plan to track down offenders.

What is there even to talk about? Nobody actually knows what these specific "measures" are supposed to be—I mean, how could they? And honestly, who knows if this threat is even legit to begin with...

In a few weeks—or maybe months, depending on how things shake out—we’ll see if anyone in our little circle of contacts actually gets caught and slapped with a penalty, and what kind of nonsense they were pulling to get flagged in the first place.

Look, if someone is playing by the rules, the only way you’d even catch them is if the government demanded every single online sportsbook in the States hand over a list of all their users based here. I don't even know if those companies are legally obligated to cough up that kind of data...

Is there any way to actually load cash onto my PayPal account using an ATM with the card?

No

Time to set up camp, or so my buddy tells me 🙂
but he’s being dead serious about it this time...

anyway, is there any way to use PayPal instead of just doing a boring old bank transfer?

PayPal, just upload from your card if you aren't thinking about that

Just wanted to ask before I make my first deposit... are there any welcome bonuses running at BetMGM right now? 🙄

Not for America

http://www.nytimes.com/news/article/fine-for-illegal-gambling
I can't tell if this is just some isolated incident or if we're finally seeing the beginning of the end for betting on those offshore sites...

Man, whatever... we’re heading straight to the European Commission, and honestly? It’s about damn time we put an end to this fascism.

ruggedpilot5 said:Give me a break... if we actually take this straight to the European Commission, maybe we can finally put an end to this fascism.

That's not going to fly. Every state has its own authority to regulate online gambling laws, so shouldn't we be focusing our energy on more pressing matters, like those suspicious wire transfers coming out of places like Florida?

Tyler Taylor82 said:That doesn't fly. Every country can set its own rules for online betting. We should be focusing on other stuff—like payments coming out of the US, for example.

Hmm, I don't know about that. It’s not quite that simple.

As for those payments from the US... look, I use a VPN, so technically, as far as the internet is concerned, I'm placing my bets from whatever location the software assigns me an IP for.

Besides, how would the government even track an IP address like that? For that to work, they’d basically need direct access to my sportsbook account, and does that even happen? Is FanDuel actually obligated to hand over their users' private data to the IRS?

I'm not buying it. I don't see any international law that would force them to do that—especially since they're registered over in Puerto Rico.

How are we supposed to read this:

"Based on the above, citizens are requested to respect the stated legal prohibition and refrain from participating in online gambling offered by foreign commercial companies within the territory of the USA, which exposes them to the risk of heavy fines."

Specifically, how do you interpret "...offered by foreign commercial companies within the territory of the USA"?
If some foreign online sportsbook doesn't have a single physical branch in the States, how does it fall into this category if everything happens online? How is that considered operating WITHIN the US?

Foreign betting sites have every right to register in the USA and meet the legal requirements to operate within the country. That’s the only way they can legally offer services to American players. No one is stopping them from doing that. Since they're playing dumb, the next logical step will be for the US government to demand that registrations from US-based users be blocked, followed by shutting down the websites of illegal operators. Of course, there will always be ways for players to bypass this, though it'll take some effort. A few unlucky ones might run into fines, but those would be rare.
A good example of market regulation would be DraftKings in Italy; to operate properly there, they had to pay fees and register their web address www.draftkings.it
which shows they are actually paying all the same taxes as domestic operators.
Here’s a simple breakdown:

Let's say we have a game with +100 odds on a home win:

DraftKings (domestic equivalent) - stake $33 x 2 - once you factor in the manipulative overhead, you find the actual stake is 95 x 2, giving a return of about 190. After tax is applied, the player actually walks away with 180.5 USD
FanDuel - stake $33 x 2 and payout $67.
Sure, the math looks fine on paper, but it begs the question: who's being played here? Why should a local operator follow all our national laws and regulations when an unknown is allowed to bet freely, while a site like FanDuel doesn't have to? Okay, FanDuel is registered in Puerto Rico and follows their laws—fine—but then they should offer their products to people in Puerto Rico, not Americans. As ridiculous as the US might seem sometimes, it isn't stupid enough to just sit by and watch revenue vanish because it's letting illegal providers (which, currently, includes all these foreign sites) thrive.

It's a caricature, really... but it's like going to buy a car here, and after adding all the taxes, it ends up costing you, say, 150 $0.00, while the exact same car in Canada costs 130 $0.00. So, by analogy, you'd go to Canada, buy the car, and bring it back here to drive. No problem, nobody is stopping you, but if you want to drive it in the US, you'll have to register it here and provide all the necessary purchase paperwork—meaning you'll have to pay various fees and duties. Then you can drive it. And that's fair, because otherwise, local dealers would go bust—actually, everyone would go bust because everyone would just shop wherever the initial price looks most attractive.