Online Gambling Casinos Legality Worldwide

With the global buzz the Leach Bill and the Anti-Gambling Legislation signed by President Bush last year, the legality of online casinos remain somewhat of a confusing subject for most. In this article, the basic legal situation of the industry is discussed in order to offer some clarification and light on the subject.

Background

A couple of decades have passed since the first online casino gaming activities were carried out thanks to the dawning of the Internet as we know it today. Ever since then, the online gaming industry has developed and expanded at a tremendous pace gaining millions of enthusiasts all over the world with a common goal: to play online. Along with its technological and services development, a stable growth in ethical practices, procedures and regulations has taken place within the industry accompanied by an ever-growing number of regulating authorities (private, public and governmental) whose goal is to bring about a safe and secure online gaming environment for all parties involved in remote gaming. Nonetheless, some of the most influential governments in the world have had all along a different agenda regarding the existence and future of the online gaming industry posing significant obstacles on the path of online gaming activities to the extend of representing a real threat to this kinds of activities.

Gambling in the US

In the particular case of the US, although limiting regulations had always existed in the terrain of land-based and telecommunication casino operations, it took some time before a tangible opposition had develop the power and tools to execute concrete actions against Online Gambling. With some gray areas in its contents, the Anti-gambling Legislation signed by President Bush on October 13, 2006 gives complete legitimacy to the illegal nature of online gambling in the US. Nonetheless, little can be done about overseas online gaming operators promoting their services in cyberspace, or even about enforcing the anti-gambling legislation at home. All and all, an ample sector of the operating banks and credit card companies in the US refuse to pay service to online gaming related activities posing some difficulty to withdrawal methods and giving a lot of support to the US government’s perspective on the matter.

Gambling in Europe

The situation in Europe is quite different from that in the US. Although very divided as far as perspective goes, Europe remains permissive of online gaming at least at a legislative level. In countries like France, online gamming is not totally well regarded by the government and some sectors that incessantly try to take limiting and prohibiting measures. On the other hand, Britain is world renowned for its governmental support of gaming activities, including online gaming, since the 60’s being one of the first countries to legalize gambling in the Western World. There is yet another group of European countries like Spain and Italy were practical attempts for legalizing online gambling meet factual opposition from generic laws related to advertising and other sectors. Nonetheless, the legality of online casinos is still a fact in those two countries.

Future

Although reiterated efforts to abolish or at least diminish the scope of action of the online gaming industry and the legality of online casinos do take place daily, it is highly unlikely the industry will disappear as a whole. In fact, the assertive reaction of the online gaming industry towards last year series of events is a strong indication of the endurance, professionalism, and firm presence of the online casino community as a whole. In a few words, we have very concrete evidence that the online gaming industry was built to last.

Article Submitted by:
Tera Lee, Gaming and Casino Journalist.

Related Articles