Regulation round-up 3 December 2013
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (27 November to 3 December 2013)
UK government reviewing gambling advertising code
DCMS in discussions with Ofcom and ASA over “adequacy” of current code as Gambling Bill passes to the House of Lords
Sports minister Helen Grant has revealed the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is in discussions with a number of bodies to ensure current advertising codes were robust enough to protect children from gambling advertisements.
Ofcom recently released a report which showed the volume of gambling adverts on television had increased six-fold since advertising laws were relaxed in 2007. A total of 1.4m gambling ads were screened during 2012 representing 4.1% of all adverts shown.
Ahead of the report, Grant and DCMS secretary of state Maria Miller attended meetings with Ofcom, the Gambling Commission and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to discuss the growing prevalence of gambling ads and whether there was a greater risk of exposure to children.
Despite the increase, Grant said she was satisfied current measures were proving to be an effective tool in limiting exposure to children due to the majority of adverts being shown after the 9pm watershed but will continue to examine the situation.
Gambling Commission to quell fears over supplier ambiguity
The Gambling Commission is planning to issue further guidance to operators who fear they may be caught out by impending regulation requiring them to use UK-licensed software providers.
The UK regulator will place an emphasis on operators to ensure all gambling software they use is supplied by a holder of a gambling software operating licence only, or fall foul of the licencing code, as part of a series of proposed amendments to the licencing conditions and codes of practice (LCCP).
A number of operators have expressed concerns their definition of a software supplier may differ to that of the Commission’s, leaving them vulnerable to financial penalties or even the suspension of their licence.
Seven days in regulation:
Dutch government sets January date for egaming talks
The Dutch Secretary of State has revealed the country’s egaming bill will be discussed in parliament in January as he moved to allay lottery operators’ fear that a regulated online gaming industry would have a negative impact on their revenues and subsequently charitable contributions.
The lottery industry’s vociferous opposition to plans to introduce a licensing framework for domestic and foreign egaming operators has been one of the major sticking points in the political process since a draft bill was published earlier this year.
It claims regulating egaming would significantly cannibalise lottery sales and therefore payments to good causes, which include charities and sports clubs, would be reduced.
Singapore to ban remote gambling
Singapore has proposed a ban on all forms of remote gambling after claiming it poses several areas of concern to it citizens.
The sovereign city state’s second minister for home affairs S Isawaran confirmed the proposals at the Singapore Symposium on Casino Regulation and Crime, condemning online gambling’s propensity for illegality and syndicated crime.
Singapore’s gambling regulation predates online gaming, and Isawaran lamented the current lack of jurisdiction it has over online operators and the types of games they can provide.
888 warned by ASA over “misleading” demo
888 has received its second warning in as many weeks from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the regulator adjudged the operator to have “misled” customers through a slots demo which paid out on every other spin.
A promotional game for Wild Gambler, which appeared on the website media.888.com, offered customers the chance to play the game in demo mode with free spins before being offered the chance to play with real money.
Every other demo spin resulted in a matched line of symbols and the complainant challenged whether this gave users the impression they could win money 50% of the time, which was unlikely to be the case in real money mode.
Malta’s LGA suspends two licensees
Malta’s gambling regulator has ordered two of its licensees to immediately suspend their gaming operations.
The Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) announced the licenses of PIVGame and Turfez have been suspended as of 25 November, however did not specify the reasons why and said the two decisions were unrelated.
Both companies have been directed to suspend all gaming operations including to cease player registration and further deposits, not offer any games falling under the LGA’s licences, provide registered players access to their accounts and to settle all players’ balances.
William Hill domains removed from Bulgarian blacklist
Three websites operated by UK-based William Hill have been removed from the blacklist of unlicensed sites maintained by Bulgaria’s State Commission on Gambling (SCG).
The three domains “ williamhill.com, 21nova.com, and joylandcasino.com “ have all been removed from the list after the SCG said it was satisfied the sites were not operating or targeting players in Bulgaria.
The blacklist includes around 160 domains “ owned by the likes of bet365, Betfair and Ladbrokes “ which Bulgarian authorities believed were targeting residents.
Norwegian regulator blocks YouTube egaming ads
Norway’s gambling regulator has moved to end unlicensed egaming advertising aimed at Norwegian residents on YouTube after lodging a successful complaint with the online video site.
The country’s Gaming Board submitted 122 examples of ads from foreign gaming firms, many of which were in Norwegian, which it claimed were breaking the law.
YouTube agreed with its opinion that the adverts violated national laws, the Gaming Board said.
In other news:
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