The fundamental concept of any online business, is that business can take place on a global scale, and this concept applies to online gambling. This type of business without borders is also a model that is intrinsic to the freedom of trade principles adopted by law-makers of the European Union (EU). However, when it comes down to online gambling and EU free trade principles, many EU countries still practice monopolistic approaches. This is frowned upon by the EU.

Now Dr Christos Dimitriadis – Intralot’s Head of Information Security has spoken at a Berlin conference, and said that “it is inevitable that new types of mobile games that could incorporate gambling features will become legal across the European Union”. Intralot builds lottery systems, terminals, and so on, and has a presence in fifty-five countries globally.

He was a guest speaker at the ISACA Insights World Congress 2013, when he made clear that their firm would be both keen, and able to investigate new business breaks, if the entire EU were to make mobile gambling legal. The gambling sector is currently merging mobile services and the cloud, which is proving to be incredibly popular with punters, and is showing exponential growth with many UK-based operators.

The problem with this form of gambling for EU member countries, is that they are not all on the same page, when it comes down to legalising games of chance that are internet based. As we said in the first paragraph – even though the European Commission has drafted an across-the-board framework for the online gambling industry – member states are being very reluctant to come to the party. It is unfortunate that regulatory changes have to be made country-by-country, but it is what it is.

The belief is that eventually there will be a way in which each member state controls e-gambling. They must play a regulatory role because of the “responsibility” factor. Gambling is believed to be best when it is controlled by law, or otherwise unscrupulous operators are able to take advantage of the public. The problem is that the EU has a great business model to follow in the UK, but don’t seem to be able to apply the lessons learned by the UK into their own situation.

Great Britain is home to the most mature sector of the global online gambling industry, and their legal framework seems to work, although like times, technology changes, and laws should be tweaked to compensate for this change. Mobile gambling in the UK, has hit the ground running in the past couple of years, and consistently appears to be enjoying an exponential growth swing.

The very first time we saw Net Entertainment (NetEnt)games and websites, it was hard not to believe that this online gambling, gaming developer was not going to do big things. They have since divested themselves of operations in this field, to concentrate on development as well as turnkey solution for the industry from a back office perspective. Dropping the gambling website business meant ridding themselves of “conflict of interest” issues, and they have gone from strength to strength since then. Every operator who is anybody should want NetEnt games on their websites.

Already an award winner, this prominent Swedish software provider for online casinos has landed a hat-trick at the recent EGR B2B Awards. Any player in this industry wants these prestigious awards in their trophy cabinet, and NetEnt took three! These awards are:

• Innovation in Slot Provision
• Innovation in Mobile
• Mobile Supplier of the Year

This company’s commitment in the development of a top-notch mobile platform has paid off, for sure. “Touch” (the mobile platform) is thought to be the best in the business, and the awards it has won contests to that. The online gambling audience is now more sophisticated than ever before, and amore players move to the convenience of mobile to play on the go, NetEnt products adapt to this growing demand. Players want quality mobile casino games, and quality is what they get.

The Award for innovation in slots provision is highly commendable too – if you have not seen their great games – do yourself a favour and check out: Jack and the Beanstalk, Gonzos Quest, BloodSuckers, Egg-o-matic, Zombies, Starburst, Evolution, Jack Hammer…there are just so many to choose from.

Per Eriksson – the President and CEO of Net Entertainment, was understandably thrilled to share this good news with the industry. He said that "Innovation is at the core of everything we do and these three prestigious industry awards are a product of all the team’s hard work." He also commented that their team had been focussing heavily on mobile development during the past eighteen months, and this focus had paid off.

Mobile is without any shadow of a doubt a high growth area, and being regarded so highly at the EGR B2B Awards will only stand the brand in good stead for a very good future. These awards recognise achievements across all e-gaming segments, including networks, payment solutions, IT and infrastructure, mobile gaming, software, and so on.

Whilst speaking of Net Entertainmednt, you might also be interested to know that another recent BIG win took place on Mega Fortune™. It paid out a handsome prized of €5.3 Million at BetVictor Casino during the May Bank Holiday weekend. This prize was the 4th biggest in their history.

One of the reasons why gambling has in the past had a dodgy reputation, has been due to the fact that a "gambling underworld" has had, and in some instance still does play a role in this business. This type of illegal activity is not unique to gambling per se, but unscrupulous operators do have a penchant to try their luck. However, there are very many legitimate gambling businesses doing really well, offering fair games, etcetera, but even the legitimate sector of this industry seems to have been tarred (in some instances) with the same brush.

Now the online gambling industry appears to have been targeted for the same “tar and feathering” treatment, where fuel for this impression is being fired by who else – but the film industry? Justin Timberlake has taken time out of his newly re-vamped role as a successful pop star to get back into the movie making business, with a new role that has been based on the online gambling underworld.

The film dubbed – Runner Runner – is being released by Twentieth Century Fox and official video trailers are already hitting the silver screen. This gambling drama is due to be release sometime this September. Timberlake co-stars with Ben Affleck who is no stranger to gambling, and really enjoys his poker; Affleck takes on the role of an online gambling tycoon. But not just any common or garden gambling tycoon, he is tied to corruption, and of course bribery.

Playing a Princeton grad student named Richie – Timberlake – is caught up in the constant concern regarding how to pay off massive tuition fees. He also happens to be a mathematics genius, and recons he could probably come up with the $60K required, by playing online poker. The fact that playing online poker is still illegal in the USA has even been taken into consideration, as Ivan Block (played by Affleck) is situated in Costa Rica.

Nevertheless, Richie makes use of the law of statistics together with his own considerable know-how, and guess what happens next? He loses of course – and finds himself in an even worse position. But not only does he lose, he also believes that he has been cheated out of the money he lost.

After losing, Richie travels to Costa Rica to confront Block, but instead ends up being lured into this underworld. After being kidnapped by FBI agents, and informed of what Block’s shady dealings really are, he tries to switch sides. However, I guess we will have to wait for the movie to come out, before we find out what transpires in the end. Release is scheduled for 27th September 2013.

eCOGRA is an independent standards, testing and certification body for online gambling websites, who are there to protect the public too. It basically offers certification to reliable online gambling websites in regulated territories.

The internet gambling public have learned to look out for this certification before playing at any site, as they have learned how meaningful it actually is. This is particularly pertinent to the UK, because the audience for these games in the country are today highly evolved – what we like to refer to as knowledgeable and sophisticated players. This week it was revealed that eCOGRA would be expanding their operations, and is involved in the process of employing more staff.

These expansion plans are only one small indication of the type of growth that is still being experienced in the online gambling industry. It is also a further indication of how the growth of mobile gambling markets is taking off like a bat out of hell. Mobile concerns as well as online firms, require this form of accreditation.

Apparently ten specially recruited professional staff will be joining the current team, with skills sets such as certified information IT systems auditing, chartered accounting (courtesy of the Big 4) and software test engineers.

Tex Rees – the Executive Director of eCOGRA – released this breaking news during a recent management update. Substantial investments have also been made in areas such as audit software, internal control systems, programmes, and testing laboratory infrastructure. It is Rees’ opinion that these expanded capabilities will extend capacity, and better enable them to service an ever-growing online gambling operations client base, within licensed, and regulated territories.

Founded in 2003 – eCOGRA has seen this industry through its infancy and well into a new era. They are now responsible for testing many of the biggest online operations, and recently inked a software deal with Net Entertainment. A Swedish software firm – Net Ent are certainly putting some of the best games we have ever seen out into the online gambling marketplace, and more and more operations are clamouring for their products. eCogra also has an eGAP standards and monitoring agreement in place with Paf – another Scandinavian operator.

eCogra certification has become synonymous with superior operating standards, and representation in terms of the highest quality for fairness in the online gambling industry. They are recipients of ISO approval from the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS), and what this means to the online gambler, is that any site bearing this seal has been rigorously tested, and is being continuously monitored. It also offers a protection aspect for the gambler themselves, and may be requested to help in terms of mediation, should any fairness disputes arise.