UK Online Gambling Law

The following review of the current legal situation with relevance to Internet gambling in the UK is extracted from a report to the Home Secretary issued by The Gaming Board of Great Britain. For the full paper, click here.

"British gambling legislation - apart from that setting up the National Lottery - is all over a quarter of a century old and was enacted at a time when the power of the Internet could not have been imagined. Unsurprisingly therefore, that legislation impinges on Internet gambling in ways which were unintended and are erratic. In broad terms, the position, as the Board understands it, is as follows.

Betting Bookmakers have for many years been able to accept telephone bets from clients with credit accounts. There is therefore nothing to prevent them accepting such bets by e-mail. Likewise, football pools have always been able to accept entries by post and can therefore also use e-mail. The reason why bookmakers have been choosing offshore locations for their telephone and Internet betting operations is because taxes are lower and not because such operations would be illegal here.

As for casino, bingo and gaming machines, such gaming can only take place on licensed and registered premises and, in particular, the persons taking part in the gaming must be on the premises at the time when the gaming takes place. Hence an operator who wished to offer such Internet gaming here could obtain no license and to set up such a site would be illegal. The Board has stated that it would seek to take action against anyone who did so.

The position with lotteries is more complicated. Tickets for lotteries can be sold almost anywhere other than in the street. They can be sold for instance at people's homes including over the telephone. But they cannot be sold by means of a machine. The Board's view is that a lottery run entirely by computer via the Internet amounts to selling tickets by means of a machine and it has refused to authorize such lotteries. However, lottery-managing companies with proposals to use the Internet to run lotteries in much the same way as someone might use the telephone have approached the Board. With these, the Internet is simply used as a means of communication by which one person offers another a lottery ticket and that second person agrees to buy. Two such proposals have been approved.

There is nothing in the legislation, which makes it illegal, or seeks to prevent, British residents gambling on the Internet from their own homes. The position in respect of public places such as Internet cafes is less clear and more difficult.

Overseas gambling operations are subject to restrictions on the extent to which they can advertise here. In the case of casino and similar gaming, this does not amount to a total ban but prevents advertisements which, to paraphrase, invite the public to subscribe money or to apply for information about facilities for subscribing money. Some Internet casino operators have begun to advertise within these constraints. Added complications arise because the whole question of what constitutes an advertisement on the Internet, and then what can or cannot be done if it is, remains far from clear. "

Although the above summary represents the law as it currently stands in the UK, it should be noted that moves are taking place to initiate legislation dealing specifically with online gambling.

In March 2002, a British Government reply to an independent review of Britain's restrictive gambling laws by Sir Alan Budd, a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury, said that the prohibition of online gambling to British consumers would be an entirely unrealistic objective, even if it were thought to be desirable.

"Instead, we will as the review person has proposed, move towards legalizing the provision of the full range of online gambling services by operators located in the UK, including gaming," it said.

We enthusiastically anticipate the release of this new legislation, and send warm regards to that member of the British Government.

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