Online Casino Legislation

Although the online casino industry is still pretty young, it already evolved into a pretty complex thing. The problem with such complex “things” is that they are usually very tough to regulate. Online gambling is no exception, so as this industry evolves, regulations are changing as well.

Of course, each country has its own laws, so regulations can vary in different parts of the world. While some countries consider this activity legal, others see it as illegal. However, things aren’t black and white in most countries, so online casino is usually somewhere between legal in illegal.

Therefore, we’ve decided to give you a quite brief explanation of what you can and what you cannot do in a certain part of the world when it comes to the online casino.

United Kingdom

The UK may be conservative in many areas of life but that’s not the case with online casino. In this country, every form of online betting is legal. Moreover, all houses are allowed to operate in the UK, no matter where they are based.

In terms of laws and regulations, things are pretty straightforward especially with the newer ones . There is a body called the Gambling Commission, which is responsible for licenses. So, every house that gets an approvement from this commission can operate in the United Kingdom. On the other side, taxes are among the highest in the world, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are so many houses that operate in this country.

Europe

European countries also have a pretty affirmative look on online casinos. Of course, the actual regulations differ from country to county but those that are members of the European Union mostly have similar regulations and allow online gambling.

On the other side, things may differ from county to country, when we are talking about those outside the EU. However, most of them allow online gambling, though many of them don’t allow websites to operate on their territory.

North America

When it comes to North America, things are a little bit tricky, especially in the United States. On the federal level, there is a so-called Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), passed in 2006. According to this act, online gambling isn’t necessarily illegal, but the act makes transactions between US residents and gambling sites illegal.

The act by itself is way too general and leaves plenty of room for different interpretations. Therefore, many states started to regulate this area in the past few years. Many of them have allowed online betting, as long as operators are located outside the U.S. On the other side, many countries still debate this.

In Canada, things are even more confusing. In this country, online casino is in a so-called grey zone. While it’s illegal to provide online gambling services from Canadian soil, there is no act that considers online gambling on abroad websites illegal activity. Moreover, many provinces regulate this area almost fully independently.

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia, there is the Interactive Gambling Act (2001), which regulates online gambling. According to this act, providing certain online gambling services is illegal and the list includes online casinos as well. Practically, only lottery and sports games are allowed. On the other side, there is no law that prohibits online gambling. So, from the player’s standpoint, online casino gambling is legal in Australia, as long as you play on an abroad website.

New Zealand isn’t much different. You can gamble as much as you want, as long as you play on abroad websites. A great thing to know is that there is the Gambling Commission, which issues licenses to abroad houses and also arbitrates in case of any kind of dispute between players and houses.