Jason Chess, partner and head of betting and gaming at Wiggin LLP, provides an update on the proposed changes to the regulation of online gambling in the UK.
THE industry was relieved to note that the UK “point-of-consumption” bill presented to parliament earlier in the year looks to be in a slightly more user-friendly form than the previous impracticable version.
The initial draft of the bill would have required operators to obtain a UK licence if their platform was “capable of use” from the UK, that is to say if UK punters were capable of accessing the platform regardless of whether any of them actually did. In commercial terms, you would therefore require a British licence entirely regardless of whether you were “in” the UK market or whether you happened to be offering Sic Bo with a Nainital language client from a Macau server with stakes in North Korean shekels.
If it were possible for UK punters to access your platform, then your non-possession of a UK licence would have been an offence in the UK. One can imagine some bewildered foreign operator with nothing remotely to do with the UK receiving notice of HM’s displeasure at their non-possession of a British licence, preferably delivered by a scarlet-coated footman with a powdered wig. Lord Palmerston would have been delighted.
The accompanying commentary to draft one of the bill rather limply suggested that operators would have to geo-block to avoid committing an offence in the UK, but the whole slapdash thing bore eloquent testimony to just what a low priority remote gambling is within the Department for Culture Media and Sport at the moment. Word is that the minister sees the matter as something to be avoided on the basis that it is only going to cause unfavourable publicity whatever happens. That would explain a lot, including the apparently dominant role of HM Treasury in the process.
The DCMS does, however, appear to have listened to representations and come to a more sensible view of which platforms should need to obtain a UK licence. The current draft bill imposes the need for platforms to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission only where the relevant key or core equipment is used from within the UK, i.e. by UK residents.
Read the full article in the current issue of InterGaming Law.
