United Kingdom Cracks Down On Internet Poker

With addiction fears mounting, the United Kingdom has vowed to begin a crackdown on foreign Internet poker rooms, or those not licensed directly by the UK government.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is planning to stop companies based overseas from advertising in the country, according to the Daily Mail.  Hunt also wants to prevent gamblers from using their credit cards to bet with money they do not currently have.

A senior government source said: “Ministers are concerned about the explosion of internet gambling advertising since Labour relaxed the gambling laws.

“Changes the Government want to make would help protect the public from gambling companies that don’t meet UK standards but have been allowed to profit from Labour’s lax approach to internet gambling.”

In recent years, the United Kingdom has been viewed as especially accommodating to online poker and other Web gambling ventures thanks primarily to a 2005 Gambling Act that limits regulation.   The current law does require operators to hold a license issued by the UK and to carry out stringent checks for preventing underage gambling.   A loophole in that law allows for overseas countries to advertise their websites without enforcing such policies, however.

‘We are the only country to permit overseas operators to advertise whilst relying on an overseas licence on issues of playing protection,’ the senior government source added.

Italy and France recently began licensing and taxing approved online poker operators within their own borders while preventing overseas competition. 

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com