This week the United Kingdom and the United States have escalated their previously simmering war over online poker.
The UK has the 2005 Gambling Act that regulates where companies must be in order to do business in the UK. These are the famous "White Zones". Well now the UK regulators have decided that it is illegal to offer online qualifiers for live tournaments unless the live tournament is also held in a venue that resides inside of the white zones.
The U.K. Gambling Commission issued an advisory on Friday that says gambling companies that offer seats to foreign tournaments are violating the 'current advertising rules set out in the Gambling Act 2005'.
"It has come to the Commission's attention that a number of operators are offering places at overseas poker tournaments as prizes in U.K.-based competitions."
Several UK regulated online poker sites and even some of the live casinos in the United Kingdom have been offering seats in a cash-prize tournament hosted outside the United Kingdom as prizes in their events. The offering of such prize in a regulated tournament amounts to 'advertising of non-U.K. gambling, as defined by section 327 of the Gambling Act 2005'.
"Unless the overseas tournament is based in the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, or in white-listed jurisdictions, the advert is likely to amount to the advertising of 'foreign gambling,' which constitutes an offence under Section 331 of the Gambling Act 2005."
When translated into a language that can be understood on both sides of the pond:
"The World Series of Poker takes place in Las Vegas and Las Vegas is definitely not white! Nor are Macau, Sydney or Melbourne."
Leave it to the US trade negotiators to pull a stunt even more brazen. The US has agreed to give up billions of trade dollars to keep all EU gaming sites out of the US market. So the war is on and the citizens on both sides will pay for the conflict in higher taxes and less access to leisure cyber activities because the politicians are more interested in legislating conduct than serving their constituents.
