Senate committee advances bill to strengthen penalties for offshore online casinos, removes cryptocurrency language

A Montana Senate committee on Monday passed Senate Bill 555, which tightens enforcement tools against offshore companies offering illegal online casino gambling to Montana residents and redirects fines to the Department of Justice to fund investigations.

Sponsor Senator Vince Ricky introduced the bill as a way to target offshore operators that accept Montana players, collect gambling revenue without a Montana license and avoid paying state gambling taxes. "These online casino applications and websites produce untaxed gambling revenue for the companies offering them," Ricky said. He told the committee the measure does not target Montana businesses or people who play the games.

Jason Johnson, administrator of the Gambling Control Division at the Department of Justice, described the proposed changes as clarifying the statute that governs Internet gambling and said the division supports striking an explicit reference to cryptocurrency after the reference led to misunderstanding in the House. "That was a rumor that this bill would outright make cryptocurrency illegal. Now it doesn't do that at all," Johnson told the committee. He said the division added cryptocurrency only to reflect modern payment…