Online gambling in Europe compared to online gambling in the USA

Online gambling has a wide spread during the past 20 years and it is slowly replacing conventional gambling parlors. Land-based gambling operators have understood the potential of convergence and have slowly implemented games that are similar to what players find in their favorite casinos around the world.

Nowadays, the popular slots games have made their way to all online casinos and it is clear that you can now play your favorite reels whenever you are located. This of course is possible if your chosen casino operator own a license in your jurisdiction. Although you are able to access online casinos, it is not possible for everyone to deposit money due to licensing frameworks.

Online gambling has a set of specific rules and it all depends on where gamblers live and what the rules for online gambling are in that certain jurisdiction.

During the past 10-15 years there have been several licensing framework that have been implements and amendments added all over the world, however we will study 2 specific jurisdictions in this article. The gambling jurisdiction for online gambling in Europe and in the USA.

Even if roller coasters are very popular in America, the regulation of online gambling in UK and Europe are certainly mirroring the ups-and-downs in the region. Gambling associations in the European Union have always suggested that gambling licenses should be controlled by the European Commission, however this never materialized. There have been news about the fact that the European Commission is working to develop a framework for online gaming in the EU, but we are still waiting to find the result.

In the European Union, online gambling is very mixed! Some countries such as Malta, UK (still part of the EU at the time when this article was written), Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden and Denmark have clear licensing procedures that are governed by local governments and a have a set of laws that need to be followed by the operators. These markets have understood that in order to attract international operators that are always active and invest in regulated markets such as 888 or many more, there has to be a transparent and competitive law in force.

However, this is not the case for all 28 member states in the European Union, some have chosen to completely ban online gambling licensing and have also resorted to IP blocking and website banning in order to keep out the international operators.

When talking about the USA, it is a totally different slice of cake. In the online gambling industry, Black Friday does not refer to the biggest shopping day of the year or any tragic event that happened on a certain Friday. Black Friday refers to April 15, 2011, the day the United States brought a criminal case against three of the largest online poker companies operating in the country at the time, effectively wiping out the entire industry in America. Since 2011, Americans had lost their right to gamble online but these dark days are over now.

On 14 May 2018, the United States Supreme Court paved the way for individual states to introduce legislation permitting sports betting if they wish so, by striking down a federal law which had effectively prohibited this. This outcome was the result of a long-running attempt by the State of New Jersey to legalize sports betting within Atlantic City, following a non-binding referendum of its citizens in 2011 in favor of this.

The Supreme Court’s judgment has not made sports betting legal in the United States. What it has done is placed the ball firmly back in the courts of the individual states to legalize and regulate sports betting if – and as – they see fit, just as they already do with many forms of non-sports gambling such as casino gaming.

The partial re-opening of the US market has lead giant companies to enter the market and focus establishing their presence accordingly. Most of these companies have developed exclusive websites for the US players and have gone through significant improvements in order to deliver a superior experience. Most notable is 888 NJ, one of the most well-established online wagering operators in the world, and has been providing players with a safe, secure and fair place to wager since it first launched in 1997.

However, fears of becoming a mixed market in comparison with the European Union remain. Some states are not looking to regulate the online gambling licensing procedures. The future of online gambling in the USA is still bleak as there are certain signals about the fact that some stated might opt to block online gambling. It is certainly an interesting story in development since as a US citizen you have the same freedom all around the USA.

We will continue to report around this story of our century in the history book of the online gambling industry.