Casino City's iGaming Pocket Directory - 2016 Edition

Sponsored by 87 Visit iGamingPocketDirectory.com for more information. JURISDICTIONS The first online casino was launched in 1995, and for an industry that is just 20 years old, there have been titanic shifts in the nature of the business. Some of those shifts have been due to technological advances, but many have been the result of changing laws and regulatory policies toward the industry. For much of the first decade of the industry’s existence, online casinos, sportsbooks, bingo and poker rooms operated with little to no government oversight or consumer protections as legislators struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing industry. The wide-open global market gave the sites easy access to players, and with a low barrier to entry and lucrative profits to be had, it seemed a new site was launching every day. However, the dream of a global market where one license — or just a few — would be all a site needed to operate is over. Poker and bingo rooms can no longer access a global player pool and often face high tax and compliance burdens, as more and more legislative bodies realize the revenue potential of the industry. A series of European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings reinforced the right of EU member states to regulate online gaming for the purposes of public policy, public security and public health. Nation-by-nation regulation began, thus changing the economics of online gaming. France, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium all adopted forms of online gaming regulations. The U.K., which originally had Europe’s most progressive online gaming policy, adopted and implemented the point of consumption (POC) tax in December 2014. iGAMING JURISDICTIONS OVERVIEW