Wherever you are located in the world, any time that you want to sit down and spin some reels or get dealt a hand of poker at an online casino, you will be met with regulations. There are operational and legal frameworks that guide the entire industry within a country that form the basis of your being able to play.
Online gambling regulations can also vary from one jurisdiction to the next. In many countries, online casinos are not subject to any specific rules and regulations within a country’s existing gambling guidelines, so it can all get a little confusing.
While the US is governed by state regulations, the best UK online casinos – Legalbet, a specialized service, rates them on its website - all fall under one umbrella of the rules set out by the overseeing Gambling Commission. That’s a substantial difference between the two regions, but what impact do the respective regulations have on online casino operations?
Let’s start with a look at the UK online casino regulation scene. Everything is governed by the Gambling Act of 2005, which is enacted upon by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). The UKGC takes care of the licensing for any operator in the UK, both land-based and online and performs regular checks to ensure licensees continue to operate within guidelines.
The positive thing about these umbrella rules is that no matter where a player is within the UK on their computer or mobile device, the same gambling rules apply. This makes things clear for players, whether they are hitting the online casino slots or tables.
The UKGC also serves in a watchdog capacity to protect players and sets instructions over bet limits, advertising and the handling of finance, all designed to ensure that customers get fair play. They also address matters of safety regarding the risk of problem gambling.
Things are not as cut and dry when it comes to online casino regulations in the US. That’s because the Federal government has left the management and handling of legislation to individual states, which, in turn, causes gray areas.
It’s extremely convoluted for players to know where they can legally gamble and what they can legally gamble on. There are only a handful of states including Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania where online casinos are legal, for example.
This has a lot of impact on players, especially those who travel across state lines. It may be legal for them to gamble within their state, but traveling to one where it’s not, or even in some cases where a person is not a resident of a legalized state, layers on confusion.
There is also the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) which complicates matters further. This bars financial institutions from processing transactions that are related to online betting as well, limiting functional payment options for players.
Complicated regulations surrounding online gambling can hurt consumers. The natural option could be to go and look for offshore casinos if access to in-state ones is restrictive. Offshore casinos are licensed in places where gambling is legal, and can accept registration by players from places where it is not. Play at such sites has been increasingly popular and part of the greater appeal that they have, is that they typically have a wider range of gaming options available, as they aren’t locked into restrictive US regulations.
But it is quite a complicated question: though federal laws don’t specifically prohibit playing at offshore casinos, playing at them can conflict with local laws. In Washington and Connecticut for example, it’s considered a crime to gamble online not only at local, but at offshore platforms as well.
There is also a chance that the home-based financial institution, like a bank, may block transactions from the offshore accounts.
Regulations are impactful and naturally have a direct correlation to what you can and can’t legally do online. But none of this has slowed the popularity of online casinos, which is a huge industry.
So much so that there is almost constant lobbying to try and get things better regulated across the United States to help players get a fair, safe online experience, and to allow for things like cross-border gambling.
At the end of the day, no one can tell you where to play, so the burden of responsibility in finding a safe online platform to use, falls onto the player. You need to know where you stand in the grand scheme of things and do your due diligence when looking for an online casino.
