Has European Gambling Commissions Gone Too Tough on Legal Online Gambling?

Wrong way go back

Online gambling has become very popular and is now preferred by many people around the globe. Almost everyone who likes to gamble is now shifting towards playing gambling games like slots, poker, lotteries, and betting over the internet through their mobile phones and laptops. However, gambling is by some viewed as a bad thing, so it is not legal in all countries. But it is legal in countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Denmark, and in some states in the United States like Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Many other countries are in the stage of initiating online casinos and legalizing online gambling. But there are some countries and states where online gambling is banned. They see gambling as a harmful activity and a moral hazard because of the possibility of money laundering, addiction, and underaged players. But there are also places where gambling is seen as a normal and mostly a harmless activity.

Countries in Europe that have already legalized have certain rules and regulations for online gambling. Okay, we all understand that gambling can be harmful, but it is not only bad. If it is performed and played responsibly considering all the rules, then it is a harmless online game. If it is performed without following any rules and regulations, then gambling inevitably turns out to be a harmful and hazardous game. We totally agree that there must be certain rules and regulations in online gambling to ensure fair and harmless play. But to continue to tighten rules and regulations on legal online gambling sites have already started to lead to shifting of the online gamblers to illegal gambling websites where no rules are creating even more severe and significant problems for the players. So what do you think? Have the European Gambling Commissions gone too tough on Legal Online Gambling?

Many are starting to think they have read on:

What are the Rules of European Gambling Commissions for Legal Online Gambling? 

To make online gambling more fair and safe, the European Gambling Commissions keeps changing and formulating the new rules and regulations for legal online gaming firms. There is with good reasons a legal age requirement before you can gamble. That is why the players or gamblers need to confirm their age and identity to the operator within 72 hours before playing games. The gambling commissions have set up age criteria that will ensure the safety of children. According to this rule, the gambler or player has to confirm his age before playing or depositing funds. One other thing about this rule is that it also ensures that illegal users are not betting or taking advantage. There are certain other restrictions and regulations on online gambling sites that they need to follow, such as using a system like the UK GamStop.co.uk, limiting the number of funds, and many more, which we have added down below.

Identification: One of the essential steps and rules of the European Gambling Commissions says that a gambler or a player must adequately show his identity to the operator. Also, the operator must know his/her customer clearly before permitting him/her to gamble.

Anti-money laundering: According to this law, the operators should do a risk-based assessment on the gamblers to stay safe from money laundering and other crime risks.

Consumer Protection: The first and foremost motive of online gambling operators is to protect and keep their customers safe. That is why they regulate and control online gambling by putting up so many laws and regulations.

Age limit: There is an age limit, and the people below that age limit are not allowed to participate in the online gambling sites.

Money limit: There are in some countries laws that limit the gamblers from depositing too much and for playing too much.

The European Gambling Commissions has been making so many rules and regulations to online gambling to hope to avoid fraud and addiction. Because gambling involves many risks, the risk of money, the risk of addiction, etc, and that is why these laws are made for regulated gambling sites. But again, too many rules and regulations, too much rigidity in the online legal gambling practices, leads to the shift from legal online gambling to illegal gambling. When people have too many rules to adhere to and too many laws to follow, they instead of following the rigid laws turn their backs from legal gambling and shift to illegal gambling. So along with the pros of regulating online gambling comes the cons of Tougher and Tougher regulations, and some of the cons are turning out to be even more harmful for the players.

Why should the European commission not be too tough and rigid on Legal Online Gambling?

We need to be balanced and careful not to put too many regulations on legal online gambling. Too much rigidity can be a side effect too, it can lead to nothing when someone wishes to control everything they end up controlling nothing, it is rightly said. Because when the European Gambling Commissions put too many rules on the legal online gambling sites, the gamblers will, unfortunately, resort and shift to illegal online gambling sites we already see this. That is why the European Gambling Commission should not be too tough on legal gambling Licensees; instead, it should focus on making them better.

We all agree that there must be some rules and regulations for online gambling and betting sites to keep it healthy, but there shouldn’t be too many obligations on it. Some of the rules implemented by the European gambling commission are good such as, identification of the person, age limit, Money laundering checking, advertising rules, and a system like GamStop.co.uk to protect against addictions.

However, lowering betting limited, making licensees be totally responsible for affiliates and what they do and write, and making it more and more difficult to deposit, will only push a lot of players from legitimate sites to unregulated sites. We already see this with more and more websites showing up in Google for places to play that don’t have Gamstop implemented, just do a search in Google for GamStop casinos, and you will see tons of sites are promoting none GamStop casinos.

The sad fact is that illegal Gambling sites have, unfortunately, become pretty easy playing at compared to the legal gambling sites due to stricter and stricter rules on legal gambling sites.

Unlike legal gambling, illegal gambling doesn’t include any rules and obligations. Therefore, if the rules become too strict on legal gambling sites, people start to prefer those illegal sites for gambling activities. That is the only reason for the fast growth of illegal gambling sites.

In The UK, the GamStop service is now offered by most of the UK Gambling licensed casino sites, which is really good. GamStop came into existence to help players stop addiction to gambling. It has been set up so that many players can ban themselves from Gambling activities and that protect the addicted players. Mainly, GamStop is a safeguard for the addictive gamblers.

However, people started moving from legal gambling to unregulated and illegal gambling because there is no limitation on the gambling practices, no limitations on the amount of spending, No GamStop, and no regulations and guidelines to safeguard the customers. The players can play in the unregulated casinos as much as they want, at any time, and with as much money as they have or want. That is why this is not a good idea to toughen and harden the rules too much on legal gambling. Because too much toughening and regulating the legal gambling sites has led to the growth of illegal and harmful gambling practices, and this is not healthy for the country.

The Conclusion

The fact is that too rigid rules on Legal Gambling sites are not the best solution. Legal gambling sites are important for the country as they help the economy in generating income and employment. The legal Casinos pay taxes so that the government can use tax income to lessen their tax burden.

Whereas, illegal gambling with basically no rules attached can make players lose so much that it can be life-threatening, and there are no rules at all, and they pay no tax, and money just floats out of the country.

That is why the European Gambling Commissions should loosen the rules and regulations a little to make legal gambling the place players want to play. It should not keep making stricter rules because some of the rules they have made are already pushing a lot of players, especially those with gambling problems, into illegal online gambling websites, which has become a fast-growing problem.

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