Online Gambling Summit Gets To Work

Published: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

ONLINE GAMBLING INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT GETS TO WORK

"There is a very substantial appetite for international co-operation,'' says British host

British culture secretary Tessa Jowell, hosting the 32 nation summit charged with discussing the regulation of Internet gambling (see previous Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa reports) reiterated her view that the USA was going in the wrong direction in seeking to prohibit instead of regulate, and claimed that there is a real appetite for international cooperation on the subject.

Speaking at a pre-conference press briefing, Jowell said she hoped to agree a set of principles guiding the regulation of internet gambling in 32 nations as research showed that bets placed on the web doubled in the last five years.

A study by RSe Consulting commissioned by the UK government had found that about 1 million people place bets regularly online in the U.K., a third of the 3.3 million across Europe, Jowell revealed. The industry takes bets of GBP 3.5 billion pounds ($6.65 billion) a year, with the average bet GBP 1 000, she said.

"There is a very substantial appetite for international co-operation,'' Jowell said in Ascot, England before the summit."The enormous risk of prohibition which we saw in the U.S. in the 1920s is more likely to force the industry underground.''

Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Gibraltar, Malta, Costa Rica, Antigua and South Africa were among the nations attending, but U.S. officials declined the invitation.

Industry executives praised the government's efforts to bring the summit about, with Party Gaming director John Shepherd saying: "To get that many countries round the table is a big step forward. We are as a company, like other companies, willing to share our best practice.''

A draft of the agreement released last week indicates the nations probably will commit to the idea that "remote gambling should not be a source of crime'' and that it "should be fair to the consumer and that the protection of children and vulnerable people should be a key objective.''

Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana, who attended the talks, said, "this is no more than a political statement'' and felt that more work must be done to draw up standards for legislation.

UK Sports minister Richard Caborn said: "We are not going round the world saying to people, 'Will you come back to the U.K.' We are here today to discuss how we can regulate on three basic principles; crime free, protection of the vulnerable and how people can be sure of a fair bet.''

Asked if he was confident all the delegates would sign up to the U.K.'s program, Caborn said there "was no dissension'' in the "political direction'' of the talks.

Jowell's department estimates there are over 2 000 gambling web sites across the world, with Antigua topping the league of host nations. The U.K. has 70 online betting sites, though none offer games like poker, blackjack and roulette.

Jowell warned that the US ban on internet gambling could fuel a rise in unregulated offshore sites. "It [the US stance] is the new prohibition.

"In relation to gambling, you have three choices: you allow the market to rip, which some jurisdictions do; you prohibit, which some jurisdictions do; or you regulate," she said. "The risks of prohibition, I think, are very well established. Our concern is that if internet gambling were to be prohibited, it would be driven underground and precisely the kind of protections that we want to extend to people would be impossible."

The culture secretary advised that there were 4 million regular online gamblers in the US and technology would allow them to evade the authorities' attempts to control the activity. She said that the Ascot summit would "attempt to establish a framework for international regulation to protect people against the risks of online gambling".

Jowell said she believed that Britain's regulatory approach had won a "consensus" of support from organisations working with gambling addicts as well as the industry. "I think the industry realises that, if they want to be accepted in this country, they are going to have to live by very high standards of social responsibility that we are going to require as conditions of licences," she said.

Adrian Scarfe from Gamcare, an organisation which offers advice to gamblers, said he welcomed the moves.

"I think it's a complicated and ambitious project the government has started on but I think well worth doing," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Basically it's much, much better to have regulated gambling than unregulated gambling - that goes without saying. We would much prefer people, if they are going to bet online, or gamble online, to do on sites that are well-regulated and socially responsible."

"Our position of regulation has attracted a very wide degree of consensus," Jowell claimed.

Under the new UK laws, online operators have a "social responsibility" duty written into licences and policed by the independent Gambling Commission watchdog. It requires them to work to prevent under-age gambling, give prominent warnings about addiction and inform users how much time and money they have spent on the site.

"This is a very important debate," Jowell said. "More people are gambling. What we have to ensure is that, as more people gamble, we don't see an increase in the number of people suffering from addiction.

"This will be part of the drive that we're trying to create - better informed gamblers but also online gambling companies that are prepared to sign up to very tough codes of social responsibility, and they in turn benefit from the reputational benefits that come with agreeing to operate within that kind of framework."

Online gambling sites registered in the UK would offer a "hallmark of quality" to people around the world," Jowell said. Signing up to the UK's regulatory code would enhance the sites' reputation and protect players.

"Remote gambling has gone from a niche to mass market in a matter of years," Jowell told journalists during a break in the gathering, the first summit to discuss the global impact of Internet gaming.

"We are optimistic that by the end of the day we will have achieved a number of things. There is a recognition that it is in the interests of all our citizens that we move to a framework of global standards on Internet gaming."

Facts and figures from the British government survey of online gambling:

* About one million people in Britain gamble regularly online

* This represents almost a third of the 3.3 million across Europe

* Europeans spend GBP 3.5 billion a year on online gambling - more than GBP 1 000 each on average

* There are more than 2 000 gambling sites around the world, of which 537 are in Antigua and 474 in Costa Rica

* The UK hosts 70 sites, but none of these offer gaming, such as poker or roulette

* Women represent an increasingly large part of the online gambling market, accounting for 30 percent of visits to UK sites during the World Cup

* Online gambling more than doubled in the U.K. during the past five years