An end to credit card gambling – is the gambling industry in the UK ahead of the curve?

This marks a serious milestone in the UK’s progress towards creating a sustainable regulated online gambling industry, and legislators around the world will be looking on  to see how this works out for Britain. As reported in the latest UK Online Casino blog from the UKCasinoAwards.com website, a heavily legislated environment raises several challenges for operators and regulators that haven’t fully been worked through before.

With millions of Britons gambling online, and with the industry seeing perpetual growth, it is no surprise that problem gamblers have seen a corresponding rise. According to official statistics the rate of problem gamblers as a percentage of the whole has remained relatively static at around 0.7%, but of course the real numbers are rising as adoption increases. Against this background, the industry is still marketing its products with brands vying for a share of an increasingly heavily taxed and less lucrative share of profits.

But the question remains, is the UK ahead of the curve and will other legislators follow in their wake, or is this part of a doomed plan which will kill the industry and end up in the same situation as non regulated or black market countries where unlicensed and unregulated offshore operators move in and take over the market? That question remains unanswered, but many are watching on the sidelines to see how the UKGC handle this. Those offshore operators in untraceable locations will be eagerly  hoping this kills off much of the competition in the UK marketplace, but equally, legitimate operators put off by the rapidly changing regulatory landscape in the UK will be watching and hoping for some stability before they apply for licensing and plan their marketing strategies.

Whatever happens, this is overall good news for UK consumers who have never received such depth of protection in this space before. The UK remains a world leader in gambling regulation and a test-bed for new policies and practises. For more information follow the UKCasinoAwards.com website for updates.