The Dangers of Over-Regulation

Recent years have seen massive expansion in the gambling industry. There are now more licensed and regulated betting sites available to register with from online slot games to roulette. This gives gamblers additional customer protection but there are still many players who gamble on the unlicensed and unregulated black market.

Since 2018 there have been over 30 US states that have made sports betting legal. Expansion has been seen in other countries with the Twin.com Canada website now attracting customers aplenty seeking the latest odds and betting news.

While licensing and regulation is important, there is a fine line between that regulators need to avoid crossing. Gambling companies do not want to have too many regulations placed upon.them. If that is the case then it makes operating in a market increasingly difficult. 

They do not want to lose the license that they have been granted or face the prospect of being given heavy fines.

That has happened around the world, especially in the United Kingdom. There have been fines totalling millions of pounds imposed by the UK Gambling Commission. This is usually for breaches of rules such as failing to sufficiently protect their customers. 

Allowing gamblers to be placing high amounts without checking that they can afford to do so is one way of upsetting a regulatory body. Allowing underage gambling or sending out information to those who have self-excluded themselves is also frowned upon.

Last year saw the UK government publish a White Paper on gambling reform. It was a long awaited document and a much-needed one too. The last major legislation had been in 2005 and since then the gambling industry has undergone significant changes. Being able to gamble online or on your mobile devices simply didn’t exist 19 years ago.

Stricter regulation of online betting sites is now taking place in the UK. At least in the US and Canada, their current laws were made after the arrival of the internet.

March saw the UK government announce major changes in the maximum stake limits for online slots. Currently there isn’t a maximum limit and it is possible for players to be gambling and losing huge amounts in a very short amount of time.

From September 2024, players aged between 18 and 24 will not be able to stake more than £2 on a single spin of the reels. For players aged 25 and over, the maximum stake limit will be £5.

Young players have been identified as a high-risk group. They are particularly drawn to addictive online slots, many based on movies or subjects of interest to that age group.

With stricter affordability checks also being planned, the fear is that these new regulations will see more people drifting to the black market. That’s a big concern for all concerned, so the next few months will be very interesting to see just if increased regulation will cause more problems