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Asia
Many countries within Asia still have very foggy regulatory statuses, according to the Internet Gambling Report. Some have redrafted gaming laws to include an online aspect, while others have left the area wide open, which makes it difficult to understand where to draw the line legally. Yet, with casinos in China making more in the first three quarters of 2008 than 2007 total and bringing in profits that outshine every casino in Las Vegas combined, it's only natural for those in the I-gaming industry to be keeping a watchful eye on the region.
In September at the European I-Gaming Congress and Expo, Tony Tong, chief executive of PacificNet Inc., suggested that recent visa restrictions on visitors from mainland China to Macau could become a catalyst for growth in alternative ways to gamble on the mainland. He said these could possibly include mainland underground land-based casinos and online casinos.
Although visa restrictions to Macau might promote online gambling interests in Asia, a recent interview in IGamingNews with I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif., revealed other issues that might complicate I-gaming regulation in Asia. When asked about regulation of online gambling in Macau, he responded with concern over the tax rate. He said the issue will be whether the tax rate would be too low and unfair to land-based casinos or too high and therefore would turn off operators looking to expand.
“So, they've got a problem with taxation -- and also of overwhelming importance right now is the regulation of land-based casinos,” he said. “That's such a high priority that it's hard for them to think about anything else.”
Australia
Passed in 2001, Australia's federal Interactive Gambling Act restricts businesses from offering gambling services to Australian residents, except in forms of traditional gaming already regulated by existing legislation. That includes sports betting, wagering and lotteries -- industries which have thrived on the continent.
Bookmakers in Victoria and New South Wales were allowed to begin advertising in early October after a batch of legal cases helped repeal the law banning it. Rob Hulls, Victoria's deputy premier and minister for racing, and Kevin Greene, the New South Wales minister for racing and gaming, said in a prepared statement that the two states would amend their respective laws to allow cross-border advertising by commercial bookmakers.
In March, a High Court decision voided a Western Australian statute that banned betting exchanges from offering bets to punters in the state. The law, passed in 2006, also prevented West Australian punters from placing bets with a betting exchange, threatening fines as high as $10,000 Australian dollars.
Europe
In the absence of pan-European regulation, all gambling is regulated by individual member states. Some states have already developed regulatory measures for Internet gambling, while others apply the land-based rules to I-gaming. Many countries have set strict limitations to restrict cross-border competition -- some even going as far as to only allow state-controlled operators, which is the case in Finland and Sweden. Such restrictions contradict cross-border trade policies at the EU level, and several member states are consequently being challenged by the European Commission in ongoing infringement proceedings.
In early November, the French government confirmed that the country's online gaming market probably would not open until 2010. IGamingNews reports that the European Union has not received the draft bill for compliance testing, but that it would be ready in the coming weeks.
Google reversed its four-year ban on Internet gambling advertising in Britain, the company announced in mid October. The California-based online giant now accepts ads from online gambling companies licensed with the United Kingdom Gambling's Commission as well as those licensed in the European Economic Area.
Also in October, Scott F. White, the chief executive of Parlay Entertainment Inc., said his company hopes for an advantage in a new licensing deal with Italy's Microgame S.p.A., even though the Italian government has not yet approved online bingo services provided by licensed operators. According to Mr. White, he expects Italy to add bingo to its approved games in the first quarter of 2009.
Latin America
In this massive emerging market, more and more Latin countries are jumping on the bandwagon to legalize online and mobile gambling locally as well as to ban offshore operations, according to Internet Gambling Report. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are leading the pack in growth and betting revenues.
David Carrion of Cirsa Gaming Corporation told IGamingNews in late October that Latin America is sure to be an important gambling jurisdiction, but it has a lot to do before it can compete in the global poker market.
“It's still a very small portion of the pie, mainly because of the local currencies and their value against the dollar and the euro,” said Mr. Carrion, who is Cirsa's corporate table games and poker manager. “But it's really a big market in terms of population, casinos and countries.”
In late February, Betsson, a Stockholm-listed operator, began offering online poker in Peru as well as an online casino, sports betting and scratch-card services. According to a prepared statement, the launch was attributed to Peru's quick online growth as well as the “relatively high” number of Internet users in tandem with a “developed gaming culture.”
North America
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006, the law banning online gambling in the United States, remains an obstacle, but Barney Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, has attempted to clarify the United States government's definition of “unlawful Internet gambling.” In mid September, the Massachusetts Democrat introduced the third version of the Payments System Protection Act, which was approved by the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 16, 2008, by a 30-to-19 vote. Its next step would be a hearing and vote before the full House of Representatives.
In other U.S. news, mid October brought the ruling of Thomas D. Wingate, a circuit court judge for Franklin County in Kentucky, who decreed that all 141 defendants in an I-gaming domain case have until Dec. 3 to install technology or software to block Kentucky residents from accessing the disputed online gambling Web sites. Earlier in September, Judge Wingate ordered the seizure and forfeiture of the domain names.
According to Internet Gambling Report, I-gaming regulation has yet to come to Canada. However, during the Canadian Gaming Summit this past April, Michael D. Lipton, a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law, mentioned noise of I-gaming legislation in the Canadian House of Commons. Roy Cullen, a Member of Parliament who represents electoral district Etobicoke North, has looked into drafting a bill similar to the UIGEA.
In April, IGamingNews reported that if no action was taken, Mr. Cullen vowed to introduce a private members' bill so that the issue of online gambling regulation would be debated and dealt with in Parliament. "I've given [the justice minister] three options and told him that I'm not going to sit back do nothing," he told IGN. "But I'm giving the government a chance to respond, and if they don't, I will table my private members' bill."