Whoever coined the term “there’s nothing new under the sun” clearly didn’t understand the trend of emerging industries. When a new idea hits the market, or an old idea finds a way to expand, chaos ensues. That chaos gives way, ever so slowly, to tighter controls with more foresight until it becomes old hat.
So it goes with the way the internet started and has slowly been shaped by rules and regulations worldwide. Within that growing body of regulation are terms dealing with legalizing online gambling.
Why is it important to regulate gambling? Since the Middle Ages this question has been answered two-fold: to protect the public engaging in it, and to help the crown get its share.
How do regulations and legalization impact and help you? Read on to learn more.
Difficulties of Legalizing Online Gambling
Every industry has growing pains as it finds its footing in markets. That and while it figures out the best way to play safe and get along with other businesses and governments.
Part of this struggle is in facing the difference between what is a grey area of unregulated unknowns and what is outright illegal. As a global industry, online casinos still have physical presence and offices in some countries. Businesses also have a responsibility to offer safe services that aren’t intentionally harmful to their customers.
What countries allow gambling to be hosted and which ones allow players to participate is another layer to the issue.
Finally, there’s the issue of taxes and the gains to countries to allow and host gambling for economic benefit. Coupled with this is the downside of lax regulations. Namely, the possibility of crimes being perpetrated through the business or by unscrupulous agents on customers.
Unregulated vs Illegal
Accepting regulations is much like accepting any other responsibility, it generates trust. Any industry that asks for money needs to offer some guarantee that the customer is getting something out of the exchange.
Time to set definitions. Illegal activities are those that are expressly against the letter and spirit of a legal body. Unregulated activities are those that are not expressly illegal but have no positive language supporting them.
Take the film, comics, and video game industries. Each of these created a set of self-imposed regulations in regards to rating and appropriate content. They did this because having that regulation forced on them would be bad for business.
The same holds for online gambling. Creating the language that becomes the regulation that becomes the law gives the industry the ability to carve out public trust that doesn’t overreach or miss the point.
Posting accurate odds of winning at any given casino game is gambling 101. Any industry unwilling to tell you how likely you are to win could be said to be hiding something. Language on how a payout takes place, in what currency, and from what legal entity (what bank, at what time, etc) all need to exist.
Know Your Country
Different countries have different laws regarding the jurisdiction of players and the games that they accommodate.
This legislation can also include language surrounding betting limits and pool sizes. The purpose of something like the UK Gaming Act of 2005, is to lay out what is permissible and separate it from known pitfalls. It’s also to create language that allows the country to collect taxes on the money passing, albeit digitally, though its shores.
Countries such as the United States restrict gambling to specific locations and tie their online gaming to physical locations. France, on the other hand, allows country-wide gaming but is ring-fenced, only players in France may play in France and cannot reach outside.
In other countries, gambling from within the borders to outside nations is permissible but advertising is not. If someone in Spain knows about a casino, they can play there. The casino cannot advertise inside Spain unless it is a Spanish company.
These rules exist to keep the taxes within the countries that deal with the players. These regulations also seek to curtail excesses and money filtering out of the nation in unknown ways. Countries can’t budget their GNI if half their money is being funnelled to Antigua.
Who Benefits
Players and countries alike benefit from regulation. However, the big winners are the gaming companies.
Paying taxes on profits cuts into those profits, sure, but taking down and restructuring shop every few months also costs. The legitimacy of a business protects that business from being attacked by civil and governmental lawsuits.
The bulk of regulations exist to protect the business by explaining what is offered and how that offering exists. This deals with legal issues of fairness and also marketing. IN most locations, gambling is legal only to those of a certain age.
Confirming age requires a level of confirming identities. Gathering personally-identifying information without well-spelt out legal language is a non-starter.
The money coming in also needs to be counted and accounted for. It’s bad business to guess at how much money has come through the doors. They need exact measures for purposes of ensuring odds, paying taxes, and covering outstanding expenses.
The Ends of the Means
In the current digital age, companies are also keen to avoid allowing themselves to be co-opted by misanthropes and bad-actors. Any company that is found to be laundering money for a criminal organization, or worse, acting as a go-between for terrorist organizations, is a business in trouble.
Gambling has long been seen as a social ill because it lures those with less to risk more. Keeping above board with everything else also helps online casinos to state clearly why they have cut off or excluded a player.
Finally, when a legal complaint arrives regulations protect the gambling establishment from being unduly searched and criminalized without due process. Much like the games of chance themselves, the players and the dealers are protected when the rules are known by all parties.
There’s More!
There’s always more to learn in the ever-changing process of legalizing online gambling. New countries are trying to launch their own sites and old ones look to expand territory. Regulations will continue to shape internal policy and guide external legality.
Play safe by sticking with online sites and casinos that adhere to regulations such as those on our featured list.