The gambling market of the UK has the reputation of being a liberal gaming market worldwide and this factor plays a significant role to help land-based as well as the online gambling market to grow immensely in the UK. Things have hugely changed in the previous few years because the UK government and UKGC or the UK Gambling Commission passed new regulations that limited the working of gambling operators and restricted their liberties.
Anyone can argue that increasing regulation has impacted civil liberties because the UK players and the UK gambling operators have been affected by the new regulations. It has become a tough job these days to identify quality online gambling sites such as https://indosbobet178.com in the UK. There are a few independent web portals that allow the UK players to find quality online gambling websites.
Gaming regulation changes
The UK government has decided to bring in several changes in the gaming regulations. Some changes are welcomed by the operators while some changes have been resisted by the gambling operators because they have been labeled as too drastic or too excessive. Some of the changes are as follows:
- The UK government minimized the FOBTs stakes. This was done because according to the reports, FOBTs were a huge attraction for the UK gamblers and this made them spend a large amount of money.
- FOBT machines earned big money for gambling firms. They contributed to 50 percent of the revenue of the gambling firms. As a result of the new restrictions, these firms are likely to lose a large sum of revenue.
Enhancement in gaming taxes
The campaigners of anti-gambling in the UK welcome the government’s decision to reduce FOBTs odds but they accused the government of not considering the iGaming industry. They pointed out that anti-gambling is equally bad as FOBTs.
The UK government enhanced the taxes of online gambling to 21 percent from 15 percent with an intention to regain a part of the lost revenue due to FOBTs. This move is hurting the operators of iGaming too.
Limitations on Gambling Advertisements
One major hurdle faced by the gambling operators presently is the restrictions imposed on gambling ads. Many online casinos were imposed hefty fines regarding violations made by them regarding gambling advertisements.
The online casinos had reportedly made 41 online advertisements that have misled the players by not highlighting some limitations. The CAP or the Committee of Advertising Practice issued new guidelines, which reduced the freedom of the gaming operators who had once enjoyed bringing new players and running promotions.
The UK Gambling Commission is heavily investigating into specialist clinics for treating problems related to gambling. It encourages gambling operators to put up efforts to educate their players regarding the signs of problem gambling.
Clear instructions are given to iGaming operators to have tools available and to make the players aware of resources for gambling problems. The UK government will tighten the gambling industry with new laws in the coming days to bring in more stability and more accountability to the market.