Following the European Commission giving the green light to the liberalisation of online bingo in Denmark, the Danish Parliament on 2 June 2017 adopted a Bill to implement this liberalisation. While the liberalisation of online bingo will not come into force until 1 January 2018, the Danish Ministry of Taxation has recently published a draft for the regulation of online bingo to be inserted into an amended version of the current Executive Order on Online Casino. The regulation focuses on how online bingo is conducted, covering topics such as the duration of the games, the numbers on the bingo cards, rules for prizes and stakes and so on. However, the draft’s description of the online bingo games that can be offered might give rise to some uncertainty in respect of the scope and what games are actually covered. Separately, the Danish Gambling Authority has issued a report on illegal gaming, which states that the regulator has recently increased its focus on websites that are marketing the gaming services of unlicensed operators. In this article, Jesper Madsen of Gorrissen Federspiel Advokatpartnerselskab analyses both developments. / read more

The Danish Ministry of Taxation announced on 27 January 2017 that a number of Parliamentary political parties had reached agreement on the liberalisation of a number of types of gambling - online bingo, horseracing betting, pigeon race betting and dog race betting - which are currently subject to Danske Spil A/S’ monopoly. Although no legislative proposal been put forward as yet, it is currently intended that such games will no longer be subject to the monopoly as of 1 January 2018, in an attempt to, respectively, decrease the illegal market for online bingo and increase interest in horseracing betting. / read more

In December last year the United States District Court for the Southern District of California issued its verdict in the Desert Rose Bingo case, which concerned a real money bingo website set up by the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel. The State of California had argued that the website breached the Nation’s tribal compact with California, arguing that it constitutes an activity not authorised by the compact or the federal Indian Gaming Review Act (‘IGRA’), while both the State and the Federal Government filed suit separately arguing that the Nation’s website violates the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (‘UIGEA’) by accepting wagers for gambling prohibited by state law. Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier and Anthony J. Carucci of Snell & Wilmer LLP discuss the Court’s verdict, and explain how the Court order answered a few lingering questions on this area of law that courts had yet to address. / read more

The British Government in its 16 March Budget proposed to amend the tax treatment of free or discounted online bets in Remote Gaming Duty to become in line with the treatment of free bets in General Betting Duty, in a move affecting online casino and bingo freeplays. If approved this would be effective on 1 August 2017. / read more

A Native American tribe’s attempt to launch an internet bingo website has faced setbacks following a recent court order temporarily restraining the site’s operation. In its decision, the Court made a number of important findings regarding the classification of online gaming services by such tribes. Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier and Anthony J. Carucci, of US law firm Snell & Wilmer offer a blow-by-blow account of the interlocutory legal proceedings and the next steps. / read more

The California Attorney General (CA) argued in a US District Court on 4 December that the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel’s real money bingo website Desert Rose Bingo (DRB) is in breach of the Nation’s tribal compact with California, as it constitutes an activity not authorised by the compact or the federal Indian Gaming Review Act (IGRA). CA, and the US Department of Justice in a separate suit filed on 3 December, also argue that the Nation violates the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by accepting wagers for gambling prohibited by state law; both suits seek to enjoin the Nation from offering real money online bingo. / read more

Bingo is something of an anomaly in that it is the only form of gambling that is recognised in the UK Gambling Act 2005 (‘the Act’) and not given a specific statutory definition. The inclusion within that Act of a provision that ‘bingo’ means ‘any version of that game, irrespective of by what name it is described’ is not particularly illuminating. This lack of clarity causes problems for new and potential licensees who want to ensure that their prospective new products do not fall outside the definition of ‘bingo’ and into the definitions of lotteries or gaming, the provision of facilities for which may require changes to licences or be prohibited entirely. By Alice Himsworth, Associate at Olswang LLP. / read more

One of the fastest growing areas in world-wide remote gambling has been person to person (P2P) gaming and, in particular, poker. It is a very adaptable game and works successfully on the internet, on interactive television (iTV) and in land based tournaments. Shocking as it may seem to those familiar with the dated view of bingo as appealing only to the silver haired, there is talk that bingo is on the way up and may be the “new poker” in the P2P space. Peter Wilson, a partner at Tarlo Lyons, considers and compares the legal framework applicable to both games opining on bingo’s prospects of rivalling poker’s popularity and success. / read more

The latest offerings from the DCMS on the Gambling Bill have now been published. This article examines the three main areas affected and, in particular, considers the changes in the proposed approach to advertising. / read more

This article examines whether gaming is being ‘dressed up’ as fixed odds betting. Casino and bingo-style games are being made available online (including on interactive television) when it is not possible to obtain a licence to provide online casinos and bingo in this country. We also examine the Government’s view that Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (‘FOBTs’) have many of the characteristics which justify controls over gaming machines and should be subject to the same restrictions on numbers and prizes. / read more