New Gambling Law Published (UK)

[daveymck]

Link to the law

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmbills/163/2004163.htm

Highlights so far, Remote Gambling to become legal under licence.

Anyone developing software for gambling must be licenced or faces prison.

Makes it unlawful to provide remote gaming to any territories where it is illegal from UK, (so if Online gaming banned in US Will Hill etc could not let US citizens on)

Anyone found cheating/colluding (and remote appears to be included in this) faces 1-2 years in prison.

Dropping of the 24hr rule.

New Gaming Commision responsible for licencing new premises as well as monitoring and enforcing policy.

[spamuell]

Anyone found cheating/colluding (and remote appears to be included in this) faces 1-2 years in prison.

This is fantastic. I wonder if it will actually ever happen though.

Thanks for posting this and summarising it Dave.

[daveymck]

Isnt going down too well on the news every channel wheeling out some gambler who has lost everything.

However with the government majority will ensure it comes in, and interesting times ahead. I really hope this is good news for poker but we will see.

[spamuell]

I really hope this is good news for poker but we will see.

How can it not be?

[TylerD]

So how many of these super casinos will bother spreading poker? Will it still be shitty self-dealt pot limit dealers choice rubbish or will we see American style poker?

[daveymck]

[ QUOTE ]
So how many of these super casinos will bother spreading poker? Will it still be shitty self-dealt pot limit dealers choice rubbish or will we see American style poker?

[/ QUOTE ]

And that is the answer to Spams question, if poker gets included it is going to have to be limit, which aint going to go down well with the regulars.

I wrote my opinions about it a couple of weeks a go on my blog which I think sums up the current situation. http://daveymck.blogspot.com

Online I think it could be a good thing, and the US casinos coming in may make it a possibility but we will have to see. They are going to have to have a maximum table area to get the maximum slots so it is a possibility that poker will be encouraged to help make the table area profitable.

[Cubswin]

Makes it unlawful to provide remote gaming to any territories where it is illegal from UK, (so if Online gaming banned in US Will Hill etc could not let US citizens on)

This ought to be good... how is the UK going to know what the US gaming laws are if the US doesnt even know? The US laws are so unclear that this just might lead to UK gaming sites excluding all US gamblers. Consider this yank in favor of unitary government and the clarity of statue it produces.

cubs

[Cubswin]

just a head up also... look out for the house of commons library research paper that will likely come out in a few weeks... these publications always do a good job of framing the context of published bills.

cubs

[Cubswin]

UK government does surprise about-turn with gambling bill link (http://www.egrmagazine.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?section=3&id=408&action=display)


Non-EEA egaming operators could potentially commit a criminal offence if they advertise in Britain but UK licensed operators will be allowed to accept US customers, according to the long-awaited Gambling Bill published today by the UK government.
Inciting or allowing a child to gamble online and the manufacture and supply of unlicensed software are also made criminal offences for the first time.

And Operators breaking any of these laws could potential stand to server a year in jail.

"This is a Bill about new protections, not new casinos,” Tessa Jowell, the UK’s secretary of state for culture, said.

“The current law leaves people vulnerable and only new legislation will fix this.”

The decision to allow US gamers was exclusively revealed by eGaming Review earlier this year, but this is the first time it has been submitted in written form by the government.

However, the decision to bar non EEA members from advertising in the UK is an abrupt about-face from a government who previously planned an open door advertising policy.

The bill explicitly rules out advertising on any media, including online, for operators who are subject to the regulations of an EEA state.

And many in the industry are surprised at the wording of the bill, which runs contrary to all previous suggestions from the government.

“We are currently trying to seek clarification on that point, and I hope it’s just been poorly defined,” Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet, said.

One industry lawyer eGR spoke to said it would still be feasible for the UK government to designate jurisdictions such as Curacao, Costa Rica and Antigua as bound by EEA regulations.

[daveymck]

The part of the bill they are talking about isnt clear about advertising, it suggests to me (have looked but cant find it this morning) that it is illegal to advertise/promote an illegal forign operation, but technically Party for example is legal in its duristriction.

Will probably take some case law to sort it out in the years to come.