Brand awareness: Virgin Bingo’s £500,000 TV marketing campaign
iGAMING NEWS 8
ICE Review: The reactions to a show which will be Earls Court’s swansong
ESSENTIAL GUIDE 20
This is IT: the IG Group’s
investment is starting to pay off for the spread betting firm
BUSINESS 42
£5.20 (€8.30) • ISSUE:89 • FEBRUARY 2012 •
www.betting-business.co.uk
Penrose looking for space for Remote Gambling Bill
In order to protect UK punters from operators in North Korea and elsewhere, John Penrose wants to introduce a point of consumption Remote Gambling Bill, and quickly.
LEGISLATION M
inister for gambling John Penrose has admitted that his department is compet- ing for space in the leg-
islative timetable for a ‘very short’ Remote Gambling Bill which will switch the regulation and taxation to a ‘point of consumption’ approach.
Giving evidence to the Culture Media Sport Select Committee, Penrose explained the reasons for the change in approach: “At the moment the problem is that if you or I, as punters based in the UK, go online and start gambling on a par- ticular gambling site, it is quite hard to tell whether it is run by a respon- sible and well-regulated operator based either in the UK or some- where else that has a decent gam-
bling operator, or by the equivalent of Arthur Daley Dodgy Gambling Inc. based in North Korea. That is a very dangerous place for punters and consumers in the UK to be. “Because it is hard to tell when you log on to a gambling site where it is based and, therefore, what degree of protection you have got, I would like to make sure that people have the protection they expect. I think what people expect is that they get the same sort of protection as if they walked into their local high street bookie’s office.”
Penrose said that ‘all options for enforcement are on the table’, including site-blocking or finan- cial prevention of transactions, although those two methods have recently proven rather porous in
certain European jurisdictions. The minister also acknowl- edged that if the new legislation is delayed then the government may have to revisit the white list freeze. “This may be a non-issue if we manage to get a place early in the legislative queue, or it may be quite significant if we get a place but it is some way hence,” he explained. “There are only one or two people in the situation at the moment who are concerned, and Jersey is a good example. I have said to those people that if it turns out that we get a place further down the legislative list, we need to look at other alternative interim measures that will not disadvan- tage them. At the moment that is slightly premature, because we do not know where we are on the
JOHN PENROSE legislative timetable.” Economic secretary to the
Treasury Chloe Smith added: “Taking remote duty to a place of consumption is so that things are clearer for consumers, which is very important; they also send a signal to the businesses with which they interact. I also want to make it clearer and more positive for the Exchequer to receive the revenue that rightly links to activi-
ties that take place on our shores. “In terms of onshore, it is absolutely desirable to have busi- nesses here, with the jobs that that entails, and that is something that we absolutely have regard to throughout the place-of- consumption-based review and other Treasury activity.”
LOCAL REGULATIONS POLITICS 16
Betfair poised for Italian exchange law The Italian authorities have
ITALY The betting exchange
continued the evolution of the country’s online gam- bling market by planning to allow betting exchanges. The European Commission has been notified of a minis- terial decree to regulate betting exchanges in Italy, a move understandably wel- comed by Betfair.
already has an Italian online gambling licence, so antici- pates being able to apply for an authorisation to extend the licence to operate its exchange product in the country.
The company has said that it ‘looks forward to working with the Italian
authorities to obtain this authorisation over the coming months’ and become fully operational on
www.betfair.it, which is cur- rently being operated as a traditional sportsbook. Martin Cruddace, Betfair’s chief legal and regulatory affairs officer, said: “We are delighted to have an oppor-
tunity to bring our revolu- tionary betting exchange to Italy. This decree signifies the positive on-going devel- opment of online gambling regulation in Italy and demonstrates that the Italian authorities have full confi- dence that the introduction of betting exchanges will be a good move for both con-
sumers and the betting market in general. “We look forward to working with the authorities in Italy to offer consumers greater choice and better value. International expan- sion is a key element of the company’s current growth strategy and our ability to license our core exchange
product in a market as sig- nificant as Italy is hugely important for us.” The Ministerial Decree will now be reviewed by the European Commission, after which it will be returned to the Italian Ministry of Finance for signing following which it will enter into force, probably this summer.
www.microgaming.com
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