UK at the Top of Online Casino List9 Nov 2006 With the winds of change affecting the online casino industry on a daily basis, it seems that the online casinos scene is doing well within the UK. Britain is leading Europe in its hunger for online casino betting with the number of gamblers doubling in the past five years. According to an independent research review, of the 3.3 million regular online gamblers in Europe, one in three is from the UK.
‘Of course, we also want online gambling companies to come onshore. We will welcome them here because we believe that by allowing those who want to gamble to do so over the counter, not under the counter, is the best way to protect children and vulnerable people and keep out crime. The enormous risk of prohibition, as we saw in America during the 1920s and 1930s, is that you drive the industry underground. Our purpose is protection. If gambling becomes an illicit activity, then we can’t do that,’ said Tessa Jowell, Culture, Media, and Sport Secretary for the UK. There are now 2,300 online casino sites across the world. Many are based in a few key nations with Antigua.
Online casino gambling on many sports is illegal in the US and many online betting firms have set up tax havens overseas. These online casino havens are among the 85 areas of the world that currently regulate online betting to dodge the US laws. It seems that this will continue as long as the world continues to adapt online gambling as a legal activity, and as long as the US does not.
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