New regulations for online casinos

Online casino gamblers in the UK will be interested and probably pleased with the latest online casino news, following the recent announcement from John Penrose, the Minister responsible for gambling regulation. The Government proposes to require all gambling operators selling in the UK to obtain a license from the Gambling Commission, which will for the first time bring remote gambling operations within the regulatory system, including online casino operations currently based abroad. The current regulations only cover online casinos based in the UK, but allow online casinos licensed in a European Economic Area state, or a state on the ‘White List’ approved by the Department for Media, Culture and Sport to sell into the UK without being subject to the Gambling Act (2005). The new regulations would create a level playing field for all online casino operators wherever they are based, and ensure that all online gamblers playing casino games in the UK will be protected by the regulations irrespective of which online casino they choose to register with. The gaming laws in the UK are already recognised as being amongst the most rigorous in the world, and of course that is why many online casino operators have chosen to base themselves abroad even though their customer base is primarily in the UK. The majority of the major online casino operators are of course perfectly legitimate, regardless of where they are based, but this latest proposal will give extra confidence to existing online casino gamblers and may even encourage more customers to gamble online. Let us hope that the Irish Government were listening.