Virtual casinos take advantage of a regulatory void, but not for much longer, writes Julius Baumann. Online casino Silversands’ days may be numbered with the introduction of SA’s online gambling regulations coming a step closer to reality. Under the proposed regulations, which were published in the Government Gazette for public comment in February...

The bingo operators Gala and Mecca are in a regulatory face-off with the government and the Gambling Commission over the number of lucrative GBP 500 slot machines allowed in their clubs. Both operators have secured multiple licences for scores of bingo halls in order to boost the number of big-prize machines they are allowed to install. Their actions appear to circumvent limits set by the Gambling Act, which are designed to protect against problem gambling.

In December 2007 Italy notified Brussels with the proposed new licensing requirements which are set to prove more EU-friendly than those currently in place (gaming servers may be located abroad provided within the EU territory, no need for the licensee company to be incorporated under Italian law, lower licence fees, etc). The so-called “standstill period” (during which the proposed rules cannot be implemented by the Italian authorities pending possible remarks and requests for clarification and/or amendments from the EC authorities) will officially lapse at the end of March yet it is still unknown at this time whether it will be possibly extended by one extra month.