New Morning for British Online Casinos

2 September 2007

Today at long last the regulations the British Government enacted on the subject of online gambling come into full effect. Since 2005, when the United Kingdom passed the Gambling Act which makes it legal for citizens to gamble online, it has been developing the rules and regulations for the Gambling Act. Today, the gambling Act of 2005 will be put into force.

Among the other games now legal are online roulette, craps, slots, poker and sports betting. The Act was legislated during Tony Blair�s term, with the aim of taxing online casino operators while strictly regulating them in order to protect against underage gambling, among other issues. Blair also intended to improve treatment for problem gamblers. When Prime Minister Gordon Brown came into office, he had no choice but to approve the Gambling Act. Gordon has stated, however, that he is a conservative and is against gambling in any form.

In order to deter the proliferation of online casino operators in the UK, taxing was set at 15%, the same rate land based casinos have to pay. However, what Brown failed to realize was that the Act enabled British citizens from operation from out side the country. An Addendum to the Act contains a list of approved countries from which operators can serve British citizens. The problem with this is that although the casinos must be listed in approved countries which are regulated, such as the EU, they do not have to follow the strict guidelines that in-country casinos are enforced to follow.

�Gordon Brown does not like gambling and his government no longer has a strategy,� said the Conservative spokesman on culture, media and sport, Jeremy Hunt. �Most people as concerned as we are about problem gambling say the real issue is unregulated internet gambling. In casinos there are safeguards; on a website you are gambling alone at home. If ministers had thought more carefully they would have encouraged more internet sites to be registered in the UK.�

One study in South Africa concluded that problem gambling went up when gambling proliferated and became easy to access, however the study also concluded that problem gambling actually went down when access to gambling was easy if it was coupled with a strong public program informing citizens of the dangers of gambling.

The money that could have been used from taxing online gambling in the UK could have went to a strong campaign informing the public of gambling's dangers. Not that those programs will not be instituted, but the amount of taxes the UK could have made will be minimal.

Whatever the case may be, as of today, any of-age resident of the UK can gamble online, and although not as progressive as it should be, the UK government, in enacting this law, is light years ahead of most of the world.

OCN Staff

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New Morning for British Online Casinos

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