The UK regulates gambling in online and land based casinos, poker rooms, and bingo halls. The regulatory body is the Gambling Commission. This body operates under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as per the Gambling Act of 2005. Online poker sites offering real money wagering and any information sites like Onlinepokerrealmoney.co.uk must uphold the gaming laws as it applies to them in order to provide a safe end-user experience to you. As an end user, you are also required to uphold the laws of the UK regarding money wagers you may make over the internet.
New legislation has simplified gaming laws for players in recent years. The original gaming Act of 1968 stated that it was legal for gamblers to play in bingo halls, poker rooms, and licensed establishments wagering money. The gaming law was outdated due to the advent of the wonderful internet. The Gambling Act of 2005 made things clearer in terms of player laws for online money wagering.
Age and Gambling
This new act makes it clear players must be 18 years of age in order to open an internet account or walk into a land based casino in order to gamble.
Players must register with a casino 24 hours prior to placing a bet in land based casinos. Players must register with online casinos, but play may begin right away. Casinos request name, date of birth, address, phone, and banking information to establish an online account. All data must be accurate with no false or misleading information. Should a person under 18 supply their parents’ information to start an account the online casino has the legal obligation to prosecute the user for breaking player gaming laws. Any winnings made by a person under 18 may be returned and a fine may be requested.
Players and Wagering
Players can be prosecuted for breaking the Gambling Act of 2005 as it pertains to player user agreements. For more information see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/contents, which provide the entire document regarding the law from both end user and casino perspectives. Players cannot provide falsified banking data when opening an account. A player must provide their true banking information based on the bank account or funding account they would like to use. Misrepresenting any data regarding a real money account can lead to prosecution. Furthermore, using a hacked or false account can lead to other charges, including criminal or civil charges based on the court’s decision of the incident.
Players cannot use any software or devices that would affect the fairness of play. Online casinos are held to “fair play” legality in that they must have random number generators providing you with a fair chance of winning. Software and other programmes designed help a user win 100% of the time is breaking the fair play of all players. Such an instance would require hacking into the online casino, thus hacking charges can be a part of the charges brought against you by the online casino.
There is not a law regarding behaviour on an online casino site; however, each casino has their own terms and conditions which outline what type of behaviour is acceptable and what is not regarding language, gambling abuse, and gambling addiction. An online casino can deny your account access should you break their terms and conditions without fear of reprisal from any user.
Gambling in a different country
Online casinos are available to various countries even if they are owned and operated under a UK licensing body. The UK allows for users based in the UK to wager online with a real money account. If you do not live in the UK and wish to gamble on a UK website, you must ensure your country has legalized online gambling. UK sites may block you if the server recognizes that you are not signing in from a country where online gambling is legal.
At anytime an online casino finds invalid information or misdirected information from a user not in the UK they can immediately shut down the account access.
Sports Betting
Sports Betting is legal in online UK based casinos for UK citizens. Sports betting is held to the same standards as poker and all other games meaning you cannot try to fix a game in order to place a wager to win big. Manipulating a game and then making an online wager can lead to prosecution by the casino, any injured parties, and the government. This site http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/contents can also provide details about sports betting and any fixed wagering issues that may apply under UK law.