Net gambling issue opens transatlantic rift

A rift between the US and European approaches to the Internet has opened up over the issue of Internet gambling. Late last week, the US Senate agreed to extend laws prohibiting gambling over the telephone to cover the Internet. A primary driver for the move was the need to safeguard children.

But the EU has decided to keep with its current liberal policy until it has looked at the matter in more depth. The last time the EC investigated gambling in 1991, it decided to stop short of EU-wide regulation.

In an interview with Silicon News, Dorothy Gonsalves, head of the gambling section at the UK Home Office's Liquor, Gambling and Data Protection department, explained that provisionally, there is nothing to stop a company setting up a Net gambling service.

Gonsalves said there is no draught legislation prohibiting gambling over the Net per se, but depending on the format, certain legislation does exist.

For instance, betting over the Internet is permitted as long as the operator holds a bookmaker's licence. Gaming, which refers to roulette and other casino games, is illegal over the Internet, because UK law requires it to be operated from a specific licensed premises.

Lotteries have to go through a registration procedure with the Gaming board and, so far, no one has approached the regulator with a proposal for a Lottery on the Internet.

Gonsalves added: "There has been relatively little take-up in this country, of foreign Internet gambling services. Certainly, there has been a lot less than in the US, but we are keeping the whole thing under review."

The news comes as lottery equipment provider, GTech, is preparing to launch a service to provide lotteries over the Internet. It intends to offer the service to selected European countries, but this depends heavily on the legalities of the service.