Among the biggest events people gamble on are sports; especially the sport that they love. And one of the most beloved sports in the world is, of course, football. In fact, there are hundreds of websites on the Internet dedicated to betting on football, both legal and illegal. Online betting on football and other sports is part of a multi-billion-pound gambling industry that involves everyone around the globe, or at least anyone that isn’t prohibited from gambling.
Regulations
But even this industry isn’t immune to regulations. For example; online betting brokers in the UK are regulated by the UK Gambling Commission and they require all online betting brokers to be just as fair and crime-free as “brick-and-mortar” casinos are. In fact, they have a list of conditions that they require licence holders to follow, or they risk being fined by the commission. An example of this is when Ladbrokes was fined last November. Ladbrokes Coral, one of the biggest betting brokers in the UK industry, was hit with a £2.3 million fine for failing to notice two customers spending stolen funds that amounted to £1.3 million.
In the US, however, laws going back as far as 1961 were put in place and those were interpreted to outright ban any online sports betting on their soil, though US residents are still allowed to participate in online gambling if they place bets on regulated and licenced websites.
In Canada, Justin Trudeau and his political party are stopping any attempts to legalize sports betting there, though the laws of Canada state that the responsibility of regulating gambling is up to individual territories, giving their citizen’s more freedom in that regard. As long as Trudeau’s party holds power in Canada, any legalization attempts will be met with severe opposition.
In Australia, online sports betting is legal, though other forms of online gambling, such as casinos and poker, aren’t. That is until the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 was put into power. This basically bans all Australians from gambling on Australian-based gambling sites. Australian residents, however, are allowed to bet on offshore gambling and betting sites should they choose to do so.
In the UK, the Gambling Commission not only outlines the conditions licence holders must follow, but also their social responsibilities, information that must be available to the commission while licence holders are operating, anti-money laundering laws, the Alternate Dispute Resolution, and other technical standards:
- Licence conditions
These are a set of rules and regulations all licence holders must follow. Failure to comply may result in fines or revoking of licence to operate. These include personal conditions, such as what if a child happened to have used the facilities or features of a gambling site. There are also separate sectors for betting, bingo, lotteries and casinos. There’s also a sector for remote gambling and gaming machines, as well as arcades.
- Social Responsibilities
It provides rules and regulations that protect the gambler from gambling-related harm whether this is potentially inflicted by the gambling facility or by the gambler himself, such as the case mentioned above regarding Ladbrokes. The goals here are very clear and apply to a lot of things that are part of the gambling business. These include advertising, licenced environments, contributions to society, player information, local area risk assessment, preventing underage people from gambling, and self-exclusion. These are clear rules that tell licence owners that they have to put the players’ rights and safety above all else first, before their own pockets. And this doesn’t just affect brick-and-mortar gambling businesses. This affects all gambling businesses which includes licenced online football betting sites.
- Reporting Requirements
These refer to things that licenced gambling and betting businesses have to report to the Commission when operating in the UK. These are important in helping shape decision making and advice to the government like alternative dispute resolutions, anti-money laundering activities, suspicious betting activities, and corporate control changes, among others.
These are just a few of the things that are required in the UK. If the business happens in the US or Australia then licenced owners have to abide by laws and regulations of those nations. If you want to try to get into online football betting, then you have to read up on your local laws on what they say that you can or cannot do. For example, as stated above, Australians cannot use any Australian-based football/sports betting facilities as they’re exclusively reserved for overseas players. There are several other commissions worldwide and one must abide by their laws, which are slightly different from one another, or risk being fined.
Online sports betting
But no matter how troublesome these regulations are, that doesn’t stop the business from being a huge hit. Online sports betting has become a very hot and lucrative industry since it was established. This industry alone (if we separate it from the whole gambling industry) is reported to be already worth $1 trillion dollars worldwide every year, and this includes legal and illegal gambling facilities. Seventy per cent of that comes from football betting. That’s $700 billion every year. The $400 billion of the $1 trillion is thought to have come from illegal betting facilities and websites, according to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who was pushing to make sports betting legal in the USA. And it is thought that this industry is still growing.
The football betting pool was established in the UK more than 90 years ago. The Internet was commercialized around the late 80s and early 90s. Online betting sites appeared soon after, and regulations were made and put into place just after that.
Safe, profitable, and fairly easy and fun. This is why a lot of people are playing and a lot of people are getting into the business. And each year, it is becoming easier and easier to do due to recent advancements in technology. Satellite TV channels provide live updates on matches that are broadcasted worldwide, while the Internet provides the gambling platform for players, and mobile phones help people keep track of the matches and their bets anywhere they go.
