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| New Gambling Laws Put On Ice!? |
Goverment decides on change by the back door
It has been announced
that the Government's crowded Parliamentary timetable means a gaming law is not
expected in this autumn's Queen's Speech, which sets out legislation for the
coming year. It is set to be postponed until after the next General Election,
and may never be introduced at all.
What! After all the hype and
promise. You might however be confused, as well you should be. One year after
the White Paper on gambling reform and only a month after promising a similar
such detailed review of online-gambling, the government not surprisingly backs
out.
It does make sense though. No one in the government realised that
there were no end of moralistic organisations just waiting to have a bash at
the Labour Party for liberalising gambling for the sake of increased tax
revenue. Its tailor made for it. Instead, bright sparks that they are, the
flunkies at the DCMS have realised that they can change the existing 1968
Gaming Act piece by piece to get the same effect. No one will notice or can
notice because it is so fragmented with changes and complete reversals of its
intention over the last 35 years that few people know exactly what the law
is.
For instance there is a new motion in the House Of Commons to amend
the said 1968 Act to allow players to use banknotes and smartcards in slot
machines. This means empty your entire current account if you want in the
search for 3 Bells and no one gives a toss any more. You will be able to credit
your account directly if you win or take notes or even a credit slip to the
cashier. No longer a bucket of one pound coins. The high rollers can safely
play now without getting their fingers dirty. They might get them burnt though.
As previously stated, Kerzner International Limited from Paradise
Island in The Bahamas has justed purchased a license and an undeveloped
property located in the town centre of Northampton. We now know MGM Mirage is
looking to take a 25% stake in Metro Casinos limited, a subsidiary of Westcliff
Casino (R J Brown Ltd). The combo want a new casino in Bristol, a city that has
moved from 4 to 3 casinos recently and has no modern casino facilities. Its
clear that MGM know in advance that they are likely to be granted a licence to
co-operate casinos in the UK. Further they want to open another casino in
Southend, where Westciff already run the 2 new casinos.
The Americans
are coming. Slowly. The local Alderney Gambling Control Commission issued two
new interactive gaming licences and one electronic betting licence. This brings
the total number of Alderney-based licensees to seven. One of the new licensees
is VI Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Inc, owners of The
Venetian, the largest casino resort hotel in Las Vegas. As well, Bally Gaming
and Systems business unit has acquired Honeyframe Software Development Ltd., a
leading United Kingdom gaming machine management systems company based in
Telford, England.
So the Americans are infiltrating the UK gambling
market bit by bit in the hope that they can take part in a possible massive
expansion. I think they are expecting much more than they will get.
And
so on to the Government's recent paper concerning regulation of the online
gambling world. The paper talks a lot about licenses and safe software and
proper accounting procedures, which are all basically good things. Then it goes
onto to say that gambling sites will have to slow down their games so as not to
pressure customers into betting out of control. Also they would have to halt
play for each individual once every hour and show them how much they have won
or lost.
These are noble ideas. Alas only those that are obliged to get
licensed, those who are based in the UK like William Hill, will do so. No one
else, like Victor Chandler, will subject themselves to changes that will annoy
their customers and more importantly reduce their rate of income. More to the
point however, the Government's total lack of will power to get these gambling
laws changed and new ones established means that all this is hot air for years
to come. By which time internet gambling sites will be based in the right
places to get maximum advantage from licensing, whether it be in the UK or the
Isle of Man or Alderney or a host of such places.
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