IGN reported Wednesday on a piece from the Guardian alleging U.K. Labour Party Minister Lord Richard Faulkner was spearheading an investigation into Gibraltar's gaming regulations, but a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said Gibraltar is not being singled out.
The report said that Faulkner has demanded a probe into Gibraltar's "soft touch" regulations after Victor Chandler International (VCI), a Gibraltar licensee, reportedly refused to sign an information sharing agreement following complaints that four Premier league managers had placed bets with VCI on English matches, which is against English Football Association rules.
Anthony Wright of the DCMS confirmed today that U.K. ministers would be writing to a number of their ministerial colleagues across Europe -- not just in Gibraltar -- on the general issue of gambling regulation. He said that with the recent implementation of the Gambling Act, the U.K. ministers are keen to explain the new rules and offer that information to any jurisdiction which licenses and regulates gaming.
"That's really the extent of what any letter will cover," Wright told IGN. "It's not specific to any sort of issue or the Lord Faulkner question. It's a general question, which has turned into -- the way the article is presented -- something it isn't.
"But we haven't written it yet," he added.
The Gibraltar Regulatory Authority was not immediately available for comment.
Emily Swoboda is the senior staff writer at IGamingNews. She lives in St. Louis, Mo.