Online Gambling Licenses
Where an online gambling operation is licensed is vitally important when you're shopping for an online, casino, poker room or sports book etc. to wager your money at. In order for an online casino to be recognized as being legitimate, the enterprise should be licensed in the country/region where it - or its web servers - actually exist. A properly licensed establishment will also be required to report regularly to a government - to at least some extent - either on a local or national level.
Although the United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006, a number of gambling site operators with computer servers based offshore are continuing to accept wagers from American-based players.
If you're new to the online gambling scene, you'll quickly recognize who the major players are when it comes to licensing Internet gambling companies. Many are located in the Caribbean, such as Antigua and Barbuda, Curacao, St. Kitts, and Dominica. The primary reason these governments permit online gaming companies to set-up shop from within their territory is that most of these are small, under-developed countries looking for ways to develop their economies.
How much does a license cost?
Gambling firms typically pay tens of thousands of dollars to these countries just to receive a gambling license. Afterwards, these same licensees are required to remit taxes on an ongoing basis.
A growing number of recognized jurisdictions such as Australia and Italy have also issued gaming licenses. Still the overwhelming majority of the estimated 2000-plus online casino websites continue to be licensed in smaller jurisdictions, or in unique zones such as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, a Canadian native Indian reservation which enjoys its own separate status and distinct laws. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is among the largest licensors in the world and has reportedly issued over 400 online gaming licenses.
Today, an increasing number of governments around the world are either issuing licenses or in the process of legislating reforms to their existing gambling laws. The situation in the Europe, in particular, has its own range of obstacles to overcome given that some of the European Union member-states like the United Kingdom are all for permitting and regulating online gambling, while others continue to stage very strong opposition. The most common arguments cited by opposition groups are the likely increases in the number of underage and problem gamblers. Online gaming proponents call these protectionist arguments baseless and hypocritical as governments all over the world continue to license more and more land-based casinos.
Knowing where an online casino is licensed
Determining where an online casino is licensed should be an easy task. The more reputable online casinos will always display their licensor's logo, usually located at the bottom of their homepage. If you're having any difficulty figuring out where in fact a particular gambling website is licensed, our advice to you is to simply seek another venue.
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