Earlier this year, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) updated its online poker and gambling regulations, announcing its intention to enforce the new laws in October. As such, operators accepting UK players would be required to obtain a license from the jurisdiction and pay 15% point of consumption tax on wagers by UK players, or exit the UK market altogether. The number one licensing entity for UK online poker sites, Gibraltar waited until the last minute to file a lawsuit to prevent the UKGC from enforcing the new guidelines.
When the Gibraltar Betting & Gaming Association (GBGA) filed the suit in the UK High Courts, just before the regulations were set to go into effect, industry analysts from all over the globe expressed their doubts as to the organization’s ability to win the case. Admittedly, Gibraltar could lose a great number of its licensees who may no longer have any need to base their operations out of the tax haven, but whether it had any legal grounds to stop the regulations from going into effect was unlikely.
OnlinePokerRealMoney.co.uk tries to dispel some legal confusions stemming from passage of George Bush's UIGEA of 2006 . Federal status seems to depend on interpretation of the wire act and other laws which were crafted many years ago and which remained high level in nature. The United Kingdom has much clearer laws including their own real money gambling commission .
As it turns out, the so-called experts were 100% correct. The GBGA’s case was dismissed yesterday when presiding Judge Justice Green stated, “I am of the conclusion that parliament was well within its rights to act as it did.”
In the end, the law suit was only successful in delaying the enforcement of the new online poker regulations in the UK. Instead of going into effect on October 1st, the lawsuit forced the UKGC to postpone enforcement until November 1st while parliament reviewed the case. The ruling was a double whammy for Gibraltar, which has also been ordered to pay up £100,000 to cover the UKGC’s legal fees in the matter.
“We welcome this judgment,” read a statement from the UK Gambling Commission, perceptibly delighted with the ruling, “and can now complete preparations for implementation of the Act on 1 November.”
The new regulations may be causing upheaval for online poker operators and international regulators, but for players in the UK, the migration should at least relatively seamless. Their accounts and funds will be transferred automatically to the new UK-based servers as poker rooms like PokerStars and Full Tilt prepare to launch .co.uk domains. The only requirement of the player will be to take a few moments to download and install the new UK-version of the software. They will still be able to play amongst a global player pool, although the VIP schemes at some poker rooms may be slightly altered to help offset the new taxation.
It was previously thought that certain features would no longer be available to UK online poker players, particularly auto rebuy and top-up options, but the UKGC quickly dispelled that rumor. The only players that will truly be affected are those with accounts on poker sites that chose not to apply for a UK license, such as Mansion Poker and Carbon Poker. UK players on those sites have been asked to cash out their balances at their earliest convenience. Players who do not cash out their balances will have their accounts closed, and any remaining funds reimbursed via check or bank wire. For those player, access to many other major poker networks will still be at their disposal.