According to the report in The Guardian, the UK government is composure to make a wide-ranging changes to the country’s gambling laws. In spring, you can now be expected to see a number of changes made to UK online gambling law. Currently, they are looking to take out the White List – a system recognizing licenses that were approved by certain jurisdictions, with a number of new requirements for getting and keeping licenses.
With respect to the suppression in online gambling in the United States and the suspension of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars’ license, which was in the jurisdiction of the White List, it has become distinct that UK needs to make a number of changes to online gambling laws. The new laws will force companies that access the UK online casino market to seek to receive a United Kingdom license.
The UK government recently completed an extreme ranging consultation on online gambling in the country.
According to The Guardian: “Under current rules companies can advertise and operate without being licensed by the UK Gambling Commission and ministers rely on the strength of approved overseas regulators, including those in tiny offshore jurisdictions.”
The online casino that wanted to service the country’s citizens had to first be licensed by the Gambling Commission and their servers had to be hosted in the UK. These laws, however, did not keep out all foreign-based operators. Certain foreign countries were “white listed†which allowed them to market their UK online casinos, without having to follow the laws of the land. These countries/terrioritres include Antigua, Tasmania and Aldernay, and more.
The current system under the White List provides licensing for online casinos within the European Economic Area as well as other jurisdictions written down. Of course, a number of these licenses are offshore. The new system looking to be installed will exposed similarities to online casino licensing laws just like in Italy and France, where these countries require domestic licenses and do not use companies with offshore licensing.
The changes being launched in the United Kingdom were established to provide more protection to player in the UK using online casinos from overseas operators. By implementing these changes, United Kingdom online gambling fans do not have to worry about licenses written in foreign languages. Into the bargain, the changes will help local companies to hasten in the competitions against foreign-based online casino operators.
These overseas companies do not have to pay the same taxes in UK casinos. According to the Economic Development Minister and an official in charge of gambling John Penrose, he specified that the overseas competitors have an advantage as they can obtain access to the UK market without having to pay the same in regulation costs.
Many in the industry are wondering why the British government is starting to levy the very taxes on some of these online gambling websites that force them to go offshore without restricting their access to British players.
And while it is unlikely that all online gambling operators will operate within the borders of the United Kingdom, the Gambling Commission will rather have to look at slowly replacing the White List but still respect legitimate operators and jurisdictions.
