Last year when the United Kingdom announced it's "White List" regulations, I actually thought this might be a step forward for online poker. Rather then ban online poker ("Black List"), the UK decided to approve gaming companies based on where they operate. As long as there is and was going to be governmental regulation this seemed like a step forward. Let's review how the UK White List laws have gone so far.
The 2005 U.K. Gambling Act, which was passed and enacted in September of 2007 all gaming locations will be subject to the licensing conditions of one regulatory body. The Gambling Commission now grants licenses to British based gaming operators (if you operate inside the White List zones) who conform to its requirements regarding fair play, security, as well as information regarding help lines and support centers.
One good improvement for live play is that no longer is membership required at casinos, you can walk into a poker room and play the same day. In the past the two day waiting period has meant many first time foreign players could not play in major poker tournaments in the UK, being unaware of the "membership" laws.
The new regulations include the ability for poker rooms and poker online sites to advertise on television and radio. All of this advertising is limited to late night and will be required to carry information of gambling help lines and, of course for online, be in compliance with the White List geographic regulations. If your server is not in a White Zone geographically, you cannot run advertising.
But it appears the online sites have been ignoring the laws and simply choosing not to take advantage of the new advertising rights but continuing to play on. Fewer than 20 online offshore sites have chosen to register with the Gaming Commission preferring instead to remain outside their regulation and control. Fears of increasing control and even taxation have kept many operators from becoming White List members. In addition, the expansion of the geographic limitations of the List to areas like Antigua has been met with a series of problems, none of which seems to have a clear or specific regultory explanation.
So some online sites are avoiding the White List opportunity and others are attempting to comply only to be turned away without uniform statutory explanations. Thus far the White List appears to be a different sort of law but the "White " in White List may not be all that much better for poker websites than the "Black" in Black List.
