The UK has seen an explosion in online gaming over the past decade, in part due to the popularity of the platform and digitisation of pretty much everything in life, but also because the laws legislating online gambling in this country are relatively simple and straightforward compared to most other countries.
There are a huge variety of online casino games available to people in the UK, from roulette, to slots, to poker and blackjack, all of which are regulated by the Gambling Commission, which is the government authority on all gambling law.
Here’s all you need to know about online casino regulation in the UK.
Licensing
The online gambling industry in the UK has been growing at a faster rate than almost anywhere else on the planet in recent years, meaning that the need to the UK government to be able to adapt policy in accordance with these emerging new industries was pressing.
As it happens, the UK Gambling Commission was actually the first government body in the world to take specific steps towards regulation online casino games, with 2005 UK Gaming Act bringing all online casino regulation under the same umbrella as land-based casinos.
Following this, further steps were needed a few years later, as existing laws contained loopholes which allowed some online casino operators to set-up offshore to avoid paying tax. In response, the laws were updated to state that any online casino that was operating within the UK had to have a license from the UK Gambling Commission, and therefore needed to be based at least partly in the UK.
Tax
The UK is a better place to be a winner than most, as it is one of the few countries which does not tax your winnings from any form of gambling, and this also applies to online casinos.
This means that any of the jackpots on casino.com, which has payouts ranging from a few pounds to a few hundred thousand pounds, are entirely the winner’s to keep.
The gaming industry is, however, worth billions of pound in the UK, and generates over £2 billion in tax revenue for the British government.
This is collected from the casinos themselves rather than the players, as profits from online casinos are taxed just like any other business in the country.
Security
In order to determine the safety and security of online casino players and their information, certain regulations have been introduced to ensure that online gaming remains as secure as possible.
The Gambling Commission has introduced specific regulatory measures to ensure that an online casino must adhere to data protection and cybersecurity standards before they are granted a license, and this includes being able to prove that player information is fully safeguarded through the use of features such as end-to-end encryption and anti-malware software.
Few other countries have taken such steps yet, owing possibly to the relative infancy of online casinos compared to the more established physical casinos, but legislation is catching up as governments begin to acknowledge the widespread use of online casinos.
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay, with thanks
