UK Government Hosts Online Gambling Summit

32 Nations gather to collaborate on the best way to regulate online gambling

It's been on the industry radar for months; the keenly anticipated get together of senior government and private sector leaders from around the world to seek agreement on the sensible regulation of Internet gambling.
 
U.K. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell will urge representatives of 32 nations to back a code of principles on internet gambling, the first major international measure to regulate the industry, ironically as the U.S. travels in the opposite direction.
 
Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, South Africa and many other nations on October 31 will meet at Ascot Racecourse outside London for talks hosted by Jowell. The nations will attempt to agree on a code of conduct for companies that offer gambling on the web.
 
Next week, delegates will discuss responsible gaming - age and identification verification systems, including the role of government in smoothing access to high-quality data for gambling operators to identify customers, according to the documents drafted by U.K. officials.
 
They will also look at social responsibility associated with remote gambling, including the role of government and whether operators should be required to fund awareness campaigns on problem gambling or offer website links to counseling.
 
Delegates from each nation will be asked to examine whether there are any legal or ethical considerations around cross-jurisdiction treatment of problem gambling.
 
The U.K. government hopes the nations can broadly agree to "co- operate in development of and share best practice in protecting children and vulnerable people'' and to "share findings of research into the remote gambling market.''
 
Jowell wants the International Association of Gambling Regulators to be at the centre of the dialogue between nations on how to handle internet gambling.