As the pandemic continues to rule our everyday lives, an ever-growing number of gambling enthusiasts migrate from brick-and-mortar to online casinos, forcing governments around the world to take a good look at their existing gambling regulations and implement changes to adapt to the new trend.
Changes to the existing regulations will receive the most attention in the UK and the US, and significant overhauls are expected.
The UK has so far been most liberal in terms of accepting online casinos as long as they adhered to the Gambling Commission’s rules. The rest of Europe still looks up to it for guidance on how to regulate online gambling venues. Today, it’s undoubtedly one of the most resolved countries when it comes to reviewing online gambling regulations and updating them to keep up with the current trends.
In fact, an overhaul of online gambling regulations was announced in 2019, and it focused on maximum bets. The main idea was to limit the maximum bet amount to prevent people from losing significant amounts of money after placing a single bet. Initially, these changes were to take effect in 2020; however, a new deadline - the end of 2021 - eventually had to be set.
On the other side of the world, even with the rapid expansion of 4G in South Africa, the regulations in that country are still stringent - online gambling is banned altogether, except sports betting. It seems like South Africa doesn’t intend to lift any of these bans, forcing its citizens who wish to gamble to rely on more dubious solutions available online.
The US has been strict about online gambling ever since its inception. It’s a significant issue to be addressed in the future, further complicated by the fact that each state imposes its own set of rules for online gambling, thus creating a somewhat chaotic environment for both providers and gambling enthusiasts.
Various interested parties have put pressure on reviewing and repelling these rules, hoping to enable online sportsbooks and casinos to operate. The NFL, NBA, and MLB seasons are just around the corner, and things are getting heated up as betting enthusiasts demand to be allowed to place bets on competing teams. International online gambling operators are now working together with local firms to cater to the needs of this vast, slowly opening market.
Playpennsylvania.com’s lead analyst, Dusting Gouker, explained that “casino closures have certainly spurred online casinos and online sportsbook betting, which will provide some long-term benefits for the industry.”
In this light, the need to revise old regulations is becoming apparent. Online gambling is still unregulated in many countries, and this opens the door for potential exploitation. The much-needed regulation revisions are expected to create a safer environment for gambling enthusiasts.
