1 5 August 2002

News:

GamCare, the UK gambling care and advice organisation, has reported a sharp rise in the numbers of online problem gamblers. In an article published in this issue of World Online Gambling Law Report (see page 11) GamCare revealed that the percentage of all clients undergoing counselling whose primary gambling problem was online rose from 2% last year to 31 % in the four months to the end of July 2002.

The UK Government’s plans for reform of the UK gambling industry have received the backing of the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media & Sport. The Committee gave broad support for the proposals in the White Paper, ‘A Safe Bet for Success’ and called for the Government, ‘to bring about primary legislation to deregulate the industry no later than the 2003/04 session’.

Ladbrokes has signed an agreement with earthport, the online and offline payment infrastructure company, to use its online payment system for Ladbrokes’ global eGaming and telebetting business. Ladbrokes is the first major gaming brand to enter into a licence agreement to take up earthport’s system.

Features:

The internet has no geographical boundaries and no single regulator or harmonised regulations. Partly because of this, the online gambling sector does not have any settled anti-money laundering code consistently applying across the industry. Different jurisdictions have differing requirements for their licensees. This article looks at the regimes and the arguments for strong regulation.

As greater data capacity allows mobile phone operators to offer audio, video and other inter-active to their subscribers, the quality of that content is more important than ever. The third most popular application in the mobile entertainment arena, after messaging and financial services, is wireless gaming. Wireless gaming usually takes the form of a well-known branded game (eg Trivial Pursuit) which a mobile phone user can play in order to win a prize - either money or phone credits. It is estimated that there are currently 43m wireless gaming users worldwide, which is forecast to grow to nearly 850m users by 20061. There are several areas of the law which will impact on a mobile phone provider’s ability to provide this type of content, including laws relating to prize competitions, data protection and also format rights.

Online gambling is one of the largest growth areas in e-commerce today and one of its most innovative and fast-growing new forms is ‘peer-to-peer’ or P2P betting. This latest trend has recently been the subject of a lively debate between traditional bookmaker William Hill and P2P pioneer Betfair.

This article explains what P2P gambling is and how it fairs in relation to existing UK law.

We cannot underestimate the importance of tax issues in the online environment, and it will be key in the current period of lobbying following publication of the White Paper earlier this year.

Online gambling offers new opportunities for both players and operators. But along with the opportunities are new risks. This article looks at the nature of online problem gambling and what measures can be taken to combat it.

In most consumer service industries branding is key. This is especially so for internet businesses which lack some of the more concrete ways of differentiation available to offline companies and which benefit disproportionately from the stamp of authenticity a well-known brand can bring. In the crowded online gambling market, where hundreds of websites compete across a global market to achieve crucial economies of scale, branding is widely recognised as absolutely critical.

The promotion of online gambling sites through email and SMS is the focus of much marketing activity in the industry. The legality of such promotion remains a grey area in many jurisdictions (see ‘Penetrating difficult markets in Europe and Asia’ World Online Gambling Law Report Vol 1 Issue 3). Yet apart from gambling-specific issues, there is a growing barrage of laws with which online and SMS marketeers need to comply. This article sets out a brief practical summary of the key current and soon-to-be current law in this area.