UK Gambling Bill Become Law
Published: Friday, April 08, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
UK GAMBLING BILL TO BECOME LAW
Last minute political horse-trading
gets the Bill through
The highly contentious and much revised UK Gambling
Bill was on the last lap to becoming law as we went to press.
The Bill
was approved by the House of Lords after the government scaled down plans for
eight regional "super-casinos" to just one.
It completed all
its Lords stages on Wednesday and is set to become law when it returns to the
House of Commons, probably after the weekend.
The bill appeared doomed
until Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell struck a deal with the Tories to create just
one "super" casino. It now looks likely to be approved before Parliament
is dissolved next Monday for the general election, with the provisions regarding
online gambling seemingly intact.
Given a third reading without a vote,
the new law will allow casinos to open 24-hours-a-day with unlimited jackpots.
It will also introduce compulsory age checks on gambling websites, set up a new
Gambling Commission to police the industry and create a new offence of permitting
a child to gamble.
The location of the new "super casino" will
be decided by an independent panel.
The Gambling Bill originally included
plans to allow an unlimited number of such casinos. But the plans were reduced
to eight following pressure from Labour Party backbenchers and charities, and
the looming threat that the Tories could make it an election issue finally brought
it down to one.
Shadow Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said that the
establishment of the Gambling Commission and the regulation of internet gambling
are "...necessary and uncontentious”, adding that the provisions of
the bill relating to land casinos remain highly controversial and have not had
proper scrutiny in parliament.'
The iGaming industry was delighted with
the news that the UK will regulate online gaming, having been concerned that the
bill would not be passed in time. Andrew Tottenham of the Interactive Gaming and
Betting Association (IGGBA) said: “The bill will go through unchanged and
it looks very, very good. It means a first world jurisdiction will be legalising
and regulating remote gambling. It will have enormous implications for the industry
worldwide."
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