Tag: online casinos

West Virginia’s Governor Approves Online Gambling

Posted on by Aran Malik

West Virginia is officially getting its own legal online casinos, following multi-lateral support for the West Virginia Lottery Interactive Wagering Act approved by the House, Senate, and the Governor himself.

  • West Virginia online bill receives endorsement by state Gov. Jim Justice
  • H 2934 passed final legislature approval on March 9
  • Online poker will be featured as part of the activities allowed in the state

West Virginia Successfully Passing Bill

West Virginia made a very determined entry into the online casino industry. At first, it was just a bill. H 2934 landed in the House of Representative in February under a friendlier name, the West Virginia Lottery Interactive Wagering Act, and cleared it without a hitch.

Then came the vote in the Senate, with Senators throwing their near-unanimous support for a future online gambling industry.

Then, everyone had to wait for Gov. Jim Justice.

Governors have been unlikely disruptors in recent years, shooting bills down long after the toughest bit – passing a legislation through the House and Senate, has taken place.

Mr. Justice decided not to veto the bill and chose to endorse it a bit, giving the state a reason for hoping that West Virginia will see its first online casinos open doors for netizens very soon. So far, there are five properties where online casinos can operate from, including:

  • Hollywood Casino, Charles Town Races
  • Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resorts
  • The Casino Club, The Greenbrier
  • Mardi Gras Casino & Resort
  • Wheeling Island Hotel

All properties have said that they will pay up or a casino license and also foot a renewal fee every year to the tune of $100,000. A license to run online casino costs $250,000, but there are other associated costs.

Another $100,000 will have to go for maintaining the online platform, not to mention that suppliers will also need to obtain a license with each costing $10,000.

Readying to Launch Online Casinos in West Virginia

Online casinos will probably not arrive until 2020 in the state, though this is just a preliminary estimate. Some hope that we can see an early launch in December, much like was the case with the sports betting industry in the state.

Next year is realistic, though, given the current challenges, such as logistics, signing partnerships, and not least of all the Wire Act that the Department of Justice want to champion at the expenses of online gambling activities.

In other places, such as Virginia, the state won’t see its first online casinos open until July 2020, and this is a fairly aggressive timeline. Virginia got an approval last week, so it’s very likely that West Virginia didn’t want to be behind.

It’s also interesting to watch how the process unfolds. In Virginia, for example, the Lottery Board (which will be regulating the new industry) has requested a special report that will asses how other states regulate and approach online gambling.

West Virginia has announced no such plans, but the bill is just fresh out of the oven.

Aran Malik

“Magic Malik”—as we like to call him—is not only a tech whiz but a wizard when it comes to getting obscure news hot off the press so we know exactly what’s happening and can explore and report it back to our growing and loyal readerbase.

New UKGC Customer Identity Measures Arrive in May, 2019

Posted on by Grant Mahon
  • Online casinos in the UK are adopting new verification measures
  • Young gamers to be protected as per the new regulations
  • The measures are coming into effect on May 7

The United Kingdom is finally pushing ahead with a new spate of verification measures designed to bolster customer protection.

The UK Gambling Commission Tightens Verifications Checks

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has approved a new set of measures designed to further enhance player protection in the United Kingdom. As a result, online casinos in England, Scotland and Wales will no longer be able to accept deposits until players have verified their identity. The UKGC has long stressed the importance of the process.

The new measures are coming into effect on May 7, as part of a broader sweep to improve the overall security across online casinos. Come May, casinos will have to run immediate checks and verify a player’s legal name, as well as address and date of birth before any deposits can be placed.

Similarly, anyone who wants to play at the free-play versions of the casino games will still have to confirm their identity in order to do so.

UK Casinos to Verify Identity in 72 Hours

Casinos will have to adapt quickly, with an influx of players looking to have their accounts verified immediately. This will add some strain on the KYC and Due Diligence teams hired by the casino to confirm the identity of individual players.

The move is welcomed by UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Wright who is confident that the new measures will help protect younger gamers even further:

By extending strong age verification rules to free-to-play games we are creating a much safer online environment for children, helping to shut down a possible gateway to gambling-related harm.

To avoid confusion, operators will now have a serious task at their hands. They will need to act quickly and verify customers identities, but most importantly, they will have to stress the importance of users submitting documents.

The UK Gambling Commission Recommends New Measures

Many gamers are not in the habit of verifying their accounts until they have tried to deposit. This often causes confusion and negative feedback, but most importantly – it allows players to game unchecked for a long while.

With the latest measures, the UKGC is directly going to clamp down on irresponsible gambling. The UKGC also noted that the confusion that the verification process entailed had forced the commission to sort through a large number of complaints pertaining directly with this specific issue.

Helping Vulnerable Players Stay Safe

Not so long ago, the national exclusion scheme, GamStop, was proven a bit faulty by a BBC investigation. As a result, industry leaders and the regulator have stepped up their efforts to restrict players who exhibit addiction symptoms but are allowed to play.

Requesting a verification at the start would help casinos to quickly single out self-excluded players and stop them from playing or running into financial trouble.

Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McArthur also expressed his confidence that the youngest gamers would be protected:

“These changes will protect children and the vulnerable from gambling-related harm, and reduce the risk of crime linked to gambling.”

With the UKGC continuing to step up its efforts on regulating the industry, the gambling market in the UK is changing significantly and many think it’s for the better, even if it’s a bit fiddlier.

Grant Mahon

Grant is the self-professed casino madman and reporter that brought this eclectic team of dedicated and talented writers together from around the world to proudly build an humble empire of authentic casino news.

Slovakia Is Close to Signing Gambling Act into Law

Posted on by Grant Mahon

Slovakia is edging closer to becoming the next open market for iGaming products in the European Union (EU), following similar moves from Sweden and Poland. While lawmakers have been dragging their feet on the issue, a number of proponents of legalized gambling have been throwing their full support behind a legal framework.

Slovakia to Become a Free iGaming Country

A while back, the Slovakian Ministry of Finance drafted a piece of legislation referred to as the Gambling Act. Following months of debate, the bill has finally cleared parliament, garnering the support it needed all along.

In July, 2018, the bill was submitted to the European Commission, which regulates and approves gambling laws on the territory of the EU. Following a three-month standstill period, the bill now only awaits President Andrej Kiska’s signature to become a law.

The Gambling Act is an important turning point in the history of Slovakian iGaming, transforming the industry from a no man’s land into a regulated market where consumer protection is the guiding principle. Similar changes have been recently passed in other Member States, including Romania and the Czech Republic along with Denmark, which has been posting ever stronger results after the collapse of the Danske Spil monopoly.

On the Road to Regulation and Licensing

The bill will grant iGaming companies in the country a grace period until March 1, 2019 during which all interested businesses will have to obtain their online casino licenses. The first casinos will officially launch on July 1, 2019.

Now that the market is finally opening up, the bill will also reform sports betting and offer fixed-odds betting licenses, allowing companies to apply for a permit starting on July 1, although any business that wants to offer these segments will have to wait until July, 2020 before they can roll out their products.

As most new markets, Slovakia is not hesitant about taxing any operator lightly. A 23% gross revenue tax has been voted for all online casinos, including fixed-odds sports betting and peer-to-peer online games, such as most skill-based titles.

The bulk of the proceedings will be used to create a new regulator, which will be able to oversee the industry and make sure that no consumer protection laws are being violated. While this is good news, Slovakia will most likely go the same path that Denmark and others have walked at first.

In Denmark, Danske Spil used to hold onto most operations for a long while after the country had legalized sports. This monopoly is finally starting to crack year in and year out, but Danske Spil remains a favored son nevertheless.

Slovakia will also support its state-owned gaming operator, TIPOS, while competition is intensifying. If other markets are any indication, however, TIPOS is likely to soon start losing positions to far more competitive and accommodating products brought around by the vibrant competition that the newly-regulated market intends to create.

The legislation also specifies that gambling venues will have to be shut down at least 12 days a year, which is another precautionary measure against gambling addiction. Slovakia has much to figure out and a reliable law is the right way to go about it.

Grant Mahon

Grant is the self-professed casino madman and reporter that brought this eclectic team of dedicated and talented writers together from around the world to proudly build an humble empire of authentic casino news.