UK Considers Banning Foreign Gambling Websites

January 25, 2011 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Jeremy Hunt, the British Secretary of Culture is pushing a change in the online gambling law in the United Kingdom. Hunt is calling for a ban on foreign online gambling sites that offer their wares in the UK, and he also wants to ban the use of credit cards at online casinos.

Since online gambling was regulated in the UK under the Gaming Act that was passed in 2005, the online casinos that operate in the UK have followed strict guidelines. The guidelines are especially strict when it comes to preventing minors from signing up with and playing in online casinos. This act was passed by the Labor Party. Secretary Jeremy Hunt, is from the Conservative Party.

While the UK has been particularly strict about their own online gambling sites, they have been less so with online gambling sites that operate on foreign soil. Interestingly, the UK allows online casinos that are registered in approved online gambling jurisdictions, to operate and even advertise in the UK. In fact, apart from the fact that the overseas operators have less restrictions, they also get away with paying less taxes and licensing fees than those online casinos that operate out of the UK.

Some online gambling companies that were based in the UK moved their operations to overseas jurisdictions that had whitelist status in the UK. The reason for their move was not connected to the more stringent online gambling regulations, rather it was simply because the taxation level in the UK is so much higher than that of other online gambling jurisdictions, such as the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, and others. There has been some speculation that perhaps Hunt wants this change in order to prevent companies leaving the UK market.

Secretary Hunt has also expressed his opinion regarding the use of credit cards at online casinos. He feels that credit cards should be barred from use at online casinos, since it is possible to get into large amounts of gambling debt if players do not play with money that they already have. Secretary Hunt suggests that players should not get the chance to run up large online gambling bills via their credit cards.

Credit card payments at online casinos are certainly the quickest and easiest payment method available. Should this become law, players will have to use alternative online casino deposit methods, which could include direct debits from a player's bank account. Direct debits from bank accounts would ensure that players are unable to gamble with more money than they have.