U.K. Firms Lobby for Online Gambling in USA

Published: Monday, August 17, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

A major British newspaper, The Telegraph, has recently reported that some online gambling operators in the U.K. have hired high end lobbying companies in the USA to work for them to influence and present their case before Congress. Sportingbet, Pokerstars, and PartyGaming are a few of the operators named, who have joined forces with other British based special interest groups who seek changes in certain US economic policies. It was reported that UC Group a major online payment services firm has spent millions of GBP lobbying the US politicians. The company has spent an estimated 5,23 million USD on efforts to change gambling legislation in the States.

U.K. firms have also spent significant sums lobbying British politicians, however there is no law in Britain requiring disclosure of the spending amounts. In the USA ther is a law that says lobbying funding must be revealed every fiscal quarter. Other ancillary costs do not have to be accounted for bringing the real cost of lobbying to a higher value experts contend.

The UC Group acts for 10 gambling companies and hopes to benefit from any opening of the gambling market in the USA. The group has supported efforts to overturn the prohibition on online gambling in the States. The UC Group's chief executive officer, Kobus Paulsen, speaking to the Telegraph, suggested it was a long-term strategy, "We are certain that our efforts will yield an open market for non-US based gaming operators," Ruth Parasol and Russell De Leon,

The founders of PartyGaming, Ruth Parasol and Russell De Leon, reportedly put GBP 929 000 into lobbying fees since last September in an effort to promote online gaming legislation in the USA. Sportingbet's, records show the company has spent as much as $60 000 USD over the last year relating to the "settlement of potential criminal charges related to online gambling in the USA."

The Camelot Group, operator of the National Lottery in the U.K., registered as a lobbying company in the USA last November 2008. The group paid $20,000 USD in fees to lobby the issue of "federal regulations regarding private companies managing state lottery systems," before it terminated its contract with the lobbying firm O'Neill and Associates, in April of 2009.