When people think of gambling, the first thing they envision is the bright lights of Nevada’s sin city casino strip. Yet for a country whose economy is given a major boost by the flocking tourist visiting Las Vegas, there is much controversy and talk about whether online gambling should be restricted or legalised as a whole.

Gambling Games have long since been described as being games of chance introduced to the new world by its British settlers. From the start of its introduction into this new land, gambling has always split the values and believes of communities in half.

As, whilst on one hand gambling can be seen as a great and valuable way to boost a country’s economy through a revenue increase, the other half see gambling as a viciously addictive vice which ruins people’s lives.

However, in an effort to reduce the amount of taxes American citizens would have to pay in order to fund some much needed national services, the government concluded that authorising certain forms of gambling would be in the nation’s interest for a greater good.

In order for the greater good to be maintained in the eye of the state, an American Gaming Society was established. This society was set up to depict a list of gaming options which would be made permissible by governmental law, these where to include charitable gaming, lotteries and commercial casinos.

With categories detailing the breakdown of gambling as per the authority of the American Gaming Society as bestowed unto them by the government, gambling as a whole, is deemed legal under the federal law of the United States. Nevertheless, each individual state us encouraged to regulate and even prohibit gambling in both the physical and online form of gaming.
The most liberal and pro gambling state in the whole of the USA is Nevada, where for years the local governing body and the state law have worked harmoniously together to allow gambling as a state wide legal enterprise restricted only by licenses and zoning restrictions.

Yet, whilst the pro gambling debate wages on between states, the regulations of online gambling have been closely enforced and adhered to. However, the major cause of the online gambling debate in the USA still remains that of the release and enforcement of the 1961 Federal Wire Act. This legislation served to outlaw all betting between states with regards to sports, yet failed to address any legal standing against any other forms of gambling.

Due to its ambiguous nature the Federal Wire Act has been greatly contested and its failure to legally acknowledge and regulate all forms of gambling rather than just those between interstates, led to the requirement of new legislation brought in its place as that of 2006’s unlawful internet gambling act, which served only to confuse the nation further as rather than prohibit any form of online gambling it outlawed any financial transaction made between a US citizen and the online gaming provider.

Online Gambling’s Legislative Change Sparks Fear In The Mind Of A Nation As Internet Gaming Set To Spread Across The US By End Of 2012.

As 2012 began and people discussed the significance of the Chinese year of the dragon commencing, the USA was faced with the likelihood that for them, 2012 would become the year of the gambler. As the US Justice Department changed its stance on the 1961 Federal Wire Act, a change in legislation which meant that US states would now legally be allowed to run and operate their own independent online gaming sites which would include the sale of lottery tickets via the internet.

This change in legislation has seen the online gaming revenue soar to new heights in a short period of time, so far as it has been found to amass a minimum $12 billion dollar more than the previously accumulated $62.5 billion gained from state lottery ticket sales.

Yet, while US states’ celebrate the money they’ll soon be bathing in, from having their lotteries and casinos join the 21st century and go viral, those who remain firm supporters of the 1961 Federal Wire Act shake their heads in disgust as they are forced to contemplate what the repeal of such law means to their fellow citizens.
It was a growing concern amongst those opposed to repealing the 1961 act that allowing states to make their lotteries and casinos readily available online to all US citizens was the equivalent of the government legalising crack cocaine for drug addicts.

This notion brought about by the repeals opposition has been backed most fervently by gambling experts who have claimed that the growing expansion of online gambling across the USA should be of great concern to the nation as around 3% of the entire population of the USA is at a greater risk of developing a serious gambling addiction as a result of its legalisation.

Nevertheless, government officials have rebuked all claims that changing their stance on the 1961 Federal Wire Act law has made online gambling legal in anyway shape or form. They have held the opinion that online gambling is and has always been the responsibility of the individual state and that it is up to that local governing body to regulate and oversee any online gambling operation being conducted within their borders. The repeal of the 1961 act was not in any way to make gambling legal within the United States, but to give local government the opportunities to augment their economy by opening up an interstate gambling establishment if they so wish.

Additionally, the Department of Justice has continuously reiterated that their decision to repeal the 1961 Federal Wire Act is not final, as they lack the authority necessary that The United States’ Supreme Court has to repeal and quash a legislative act permanently. As such, any decision that the Department of Justice makes which the US Supreme Court finds to be against the best interest of the US and its citizens may be repealed at anytime.

In 2010 UK gaming site woke up and rejoiced as news broke out that the four year ban which had been imposed upon US online gamblers was soon to be lifted as per the government’s reviews of its 2006 legislations and its prohibition of online real money betting.

As the 2006 legislation was enforce in September of 2006 across the USA, the UK’s multibillion pound gambling industry came close to collapse at the overnight loss of one of its largest online clients.

And, with the economy well on its downward spiral already, the last thing the British economy system needed was another attack on its annual revenue income.
Yet the loss of the US players to such profitable and reliable UK gaming sites like 888 Limited and Party Gaming meant that their shares saw a drastic drop of between 26% and 54% for each site respectively which equated to an overall loss of £4billion in stock shares.

And whilst the UK tried and failed to make the best of a bad situation by exploring wider gaming opportunities further afield than the scope of the US, nothing has been able to come close to the amount of revenue that US patronage produced which has in turn meant the inability of the gaming industry to recover fully from the revenue deficit the loss of the US backing cost.
However with the repeal on the mind of many a US governing body, a new hope was instilled amongst a struggling yet slowly re-growing online gaming industry as that age old controversial discussion on whether or not online gambling should be made legal was once again sparked off.

Nevertheless whilst UK and US Online Gambling supporters remained hopeful that the band would soon be lifted, expert predicted a drastic stall in repeal proceeding as midterm elections swept the nation and seats changed hands.

Yet when the stall experts predicted finally did came it was a surprised that its consequence was not that of any governmental election taking place, but rather that of the US states realising that the same legislations they had been abiding by and upholding since the 1961 Federal Wire Act could actually be used to help their own internal state economy without having to seek legal online gambling in overseas places like the UK.

Once again, the UK along with the rest of Europe were left to weigh the pros and cons of the US government lifting the ban on online gambling in the USA and realising the possible negative implications that lifting such a ban would have on their economy if US casinos and gaming halls chose to exploit this new freedom and establish themselves as rival gaming providers for US players within the actual US.

Two years on from the initial discussion to quash the 2006 prohibition of online gambling legislation in the US back in 2010, and still no decision has as yet come to fruition as the online gambling US drought continues.

The independent testing and standards company eCOGRA has successfully completed a rigorous assessment by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service to achieve an extension to its International Organisation for Standardisation ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation.

The extension enables the company to include the Danish Gambling Authority’s Technical Standards and Change Management Programme to its area of professional expertise.

"The practical application of this extended accreditation is that, along with other criteria required by the strict Danish regulator, we are now qualified to perform certification work and provide guidance to online gambling companies in the Danish market, and those seeking licenses to operate, " said eCOGRA CEO Andrew Beveridge this week.

The extension qualifies eCOGRA to operate in all five Danish certification categories:

• Gambling functions;
• Business functions;
• Preventative measures to counter money laundering of proceeds and financing of terrorism;
• Vulnerability and penetration testing; and
• Change management

Beveridge says that there has been significant interest in eCOGRA’s capabilities in regulatory compliance, and he is confident that his company’s professional teams of auditors and IT specialists will be engaged to perform certification work for almost a third of Danish-licensed operators.

"Since 2003 we have accrued a considerable fund of experience and knowledge, having conducted literally hundreds of technical and financial inspections, reviews and assessments for many of the leading operators in the internet gambling industry, " Beveridge said. "This has generated more business for us as the regulatory scene in Europe especially has evolved and expanded."

Beveridge joins an impressive company in legal and regulatory section of awards list.

Andrew Beveridge, chief executive of eCOGRA, is among the nine executives named in the legal and regulatory section of the latest Hot 50 list published annually by the business publication Gaming Intelligence.

The list honours "the most talented, innovative and inspired people working in online gambling" and was this year compiled by a judging panel that comprised Warwick Bartlett of Global Betting & Gaming Consultants; Andrew Bulloss, head of betting and gaming practice at Odgers Berndtson; Mark Davies, chief executive at Camberton reputation management; Morgan Stanley executive director Vaughan Lewis; EGBA general secretary Sigrid Ligné; Gaming Intelligence managing editor Bobby Mamudi and financial analyst Dawid Myslinski.

Mamudi said the objective of the Hot 50 list was to recognise the achievements of industry executives who are shaping the future from a wide range of international CEOs, regulators, technology wizards, lawyers and marketers.

The list includes industry legends such as Denise and John Coates of Bet365 and Isai Scheinberg of PokerStars, and the legal and regulatory section names:

• Juan Carlos Alfonso, deputy director general, National Gaming Commission Spain
• Martin Cruddace, chief legal and regulatory officer, Betfair
• Clive Hawkswood, CEO of the Remote Gambling Association
• Jeff Ifrah, a US lawyer who has been deeply involved in the Full Tilt Poker issues in America
• Francesco Rodano head of remote gaming at Italian regulator AAMS
• Birgitte Sand, director of the new Danish Gambling Authority
• Paul Telford, general counsel for PokerStars, and
• Jenny Williams, chief executive of the UK Gambling Commission.

The individual citation for Beveridge reads:

"As CEO of eCOGRA since 2003, Andrew Beveridge has had a considerable influence on responsible gaming. But it is his handling of the process that developed the CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) Agreement for Responsible Remote Gambling that wins him a place in the Hot 50. The process began facing pretty fierce opposition but in his role as chairman, Beveridge assuaged doubts and balanced hundreds of different viewpoints to produce an agreement that has been widely accepted by the industry. It is now being used as a template for good practice to win over sceptical and protectionist governments."

Commenting on his inclusion on the list, Beveridge said he felt honoured to be in such respected company as the industry matures and moves increasingly toward national regulation in many countries, with the benefits to players that this brings.