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News Archive
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Britain to push for global gaming talks
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[2006-01-16]
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Britain is looking to hold talks on the global gaming industry later this year to discuss potential regulations and help limit children's access to gambling websites.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is pushing for an international collaboration on the future of the fast growing industry following three big floatations of gaming sites on the UK stock market in 2005.
Anthony Wright, a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, told Reuters: "We want to initiate a discussion about problem areas which include protection of children, advertising, money laundering and criminal infiltration.
"We became the first industrialised nation to legalise online gaming ... The reason we introduced the act was to regulate the new forms of gambling. We can only get so far on our own."
Britain updated its gambling laws in the Gambling Act last year but the bill proved controversial with opposition politicians and welfare groups worried about addiction and criminal activity.
The ministry will send out letters to various countries in the future but Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have voiced interest in participating.
The US has been trying to get an internet anti-gambling law through Congress since the late 1990s but competing interests including horse racing, dog racing, state lotteries, Indian casinos and anti-gambling crusaders have hampered progress.
The booming global market for online gaming pulls in around $12 billion each year.
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