Remote Gambling Fact Pack
It’s nearly 40 years since the Government last had the opportunity to take a serious look at gambling legislation.
This document has been updated [August 2007]
Although it is currently possible to operate remote betting sites from Great Britain it is illegal to operate remote gaming sites (e.g. poker, black jack, roulette). Modernised rules were needed because old legislation was conceived before the advent of the home computer.
The latest independent research commissioned by the Government shows that there are nearly one million regular online gamblers in Britain alone. They make up nearly one-third of Europe’s near 3.5 million regular online gamblers. These stake approximately £3.5 billion pounds a year – an average of £1,000 each.
Across the US, Europe and Asia the Internet gambling market alone is worth $30bn – more than double what it was 5 years ago.
The Gambling Act was passed in April 2005 and will come into force on the 1 September 2007. The Sections of the Act relating to remote gambling deal with new forms of gambling through
- home computers,
- television sets,
- radio
- mobile phones
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The Gambling Act 2005 has three key objectives in relation to remote gambling, to ensure it is:
- fair
- crime free
- children and vulnerable people are protected
To enforce this we have created a powerful new regulator – the Gambling Commission – who replace the old Gaming Board, who did not regulate remote gambling. They have the new powers to:
- investigate
- prosecute
- fine
- remove the licences of operators who fail to comply with the law.
All gambling operators, including those operating remotely, will be tightly controlled by the Gambling Commission with social responsibility an explicit condition of their licence. They will have to follow strict procedures including:
- preventing underage gambling;
- prominently display information on their homepage about responsible gambling and how to get help for problem gamblers
- contributing to problem gambling treatment, education and public awareness and research on problem gambling
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The Gambling Commission published proposed licence conditions and codes of practice for consultation in March 2006. These included proposed requirements for remote operators to:
- introduce measures to control continuous and repetitive play
- ensure customers are made aware of how much time and money they have spent on their website
- train staff to identify and deal with customers who may be affected by problem gambling
- enable customers who feel they have a gambling problem to exclude themselves from the website
- use the best publicly available information for age verification purposes, including random credit card checks to verify age. The Gambling Commission will follow this up with mystery shopping exercises to ensure that operators are not allowing children to gamble online.
In November 2006 the Gambling Commission will publish the final version of the licence conditions and codes of practice.
Strict advertising regulations, overseen by the Gambling Commission and Advertising Standards Authority, will bar advertisers from:
- encouraging irresponsible or excessive gambling
- seeking to harm or exploit children, the young, or other vulnerable persons
- directing advertisements at those under 18
- featuring people who seem to be under 25
There will also be a ban on advertising from non-EEA countries that don’t meet the standards of regulation set by the Gambling Commission
The impact of these changes will be closely monitored through three yearly prevalence studies. These will provide an extensive snap-shot of the current gambling habits in the UK. The Gambling Commission is currently conducting field work for their prevalence study which will report in mid 2007.
DCMS press office
Contacts: Anthony Wright 020 7211 6931 and Julia Smith 020 7211 6263
Press Enquiries: 020 7211 6052/6277
Out of hours telephone pager no: 07699 751153
Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200
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