The Second World War and the
relatively buoyant economy succeeded it to bring about a more relaxed
attitude to gambling. The Commission also provides independent advice to government
on gambling in Britain.
Betting had always been part of rural sports, both those involving
animals and those involving contests between men. Similarly, the
Comprehensive Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 2002 (s 3006) was
proposed to prohibit all Internet gambling. Application fees for
general betting standard licence holders in categories A-C are set at
the same level for those providing gaming machines and those who
don’t.
(20) www.gamblingappealstribunal.gov.uk
Growth in Popularity
New Types of Licence
As a result senior executives at the companies involved were called
in and asked to take immediate action to improve matters. Gambling was endemic in the 18th Century Britain, but before
1850 a puritanical reaction had begun, aimed at working class betting.
The greatest achievement of the anti-gambling lobby was probably the
Street Betting Act 1906, but it remained a powerful and influential
opponent certainly up until the second Royal Commission on the subject
in 1949. For instance, one can serve as a ‘bookmaker’, offering
odds to other Internet users concerning a sports competition or
event. These exercise will revisit operators already
tested and also test a number of smaller betting operators. In 1934 those companies founding the Pools
Promoters’ Association had a turnover of about [pounds sterling]8
million which had increased by 1938 to [pounds sterling]22 million of
which the promoters retained a little over 20%.
(12) www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/jockeyclub/ html/racing/gambling.htm.
The new legislation has gone some way to assist continued and
escalating concerns in the gambling and betting world.
Laws and restrictions vary from country to country – some may let
members bet higher or more over a period of time, where they may be
limits in some countries due to the worry of developing gambling
addictions or debt. The Commission also wrote to all other betting operators
highlighting their findings and subsequent concerns.
A continued worry in horse racing has been the relationship between
gambling and organised crime with the Jockey Club issuing a statement to
the Gambling Review Body:
At a time when the administration of sport has become complex
coupled with the vast amount of money flowing into sport and generating
from sport, it is essential that more effective regulatory frameworks
are developed in the sporting world to counter the impact of gambling on
particular sports and players. The National Lottery will not be expanded on
other than to say an independent study, British Survey of Children, the
National Lottery and Gambling 2008-09, is the only British underage
research of its kind and was commissioned by the National Lottery
Commission to test the effectiveness of Camelot’s child protection
measures. This has
included the Jockey Club and ATP, whose security departments will
have access to individual identities and betting records of Betfair
gamblers when a race or match produces unusual betting patterns or
competition results.
Betfair points out that by developing internal policing relationships
with relevant sport governing bodies, sports corruption will be
deterred because electronic transactional records will help
investigators catch any wrongdoers, and, therefore create ‘safe’
Internet gambling sites. The government did not
introduce a tax on gambling on horse racing until 1966. New legislation was introduced in the autumn of 2004 to liberalise the regulatory framework in the UK. Principal concerns
stem from the fact that, by comparison with other forms of gaming and
gambling, the business of bookmaking (including spread betting) is
under-regulated and lacks the necessary measures to deter corruption
and thus renders racing vulnerable to malpractice.
There is evidence that racing is being used for money laundering
purposes. While sports leagues welcome the popularity that gambling
provides, they must guard against match fixing, point shaving and
bribery of athletes and referees because the public appeal of sport
also rests on the integrity of the contest.
Computers, technologies and the Internet have facilitated a
sophisticated and popular way to gamble on sports events known as
‘betting exchanges.’ In essence, betting exchanges allows people to
swap bets. As well as this, there is the key issue of the age
restrictions on a gambler – a player must be over the age of 18 to
legally gamble in the UK, but lax variations and the ability for younger
and younger people to possess credit cards has caused great ripples in
the online gambling world, with reports recently of children as young as
11 having the ability to sign up to online gambling sites.
New Licence Fee Categories and Changes in Banding
It has been well document that there are still a number of
licensees working without a licence. (10) Until recently the law on betting was to be found in the
Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963, which, despite its title, no
longer deals with gaming and lotteries. But
if, in the coming months, it becomes clear that it is not working then I
will not hesitate to bring in a statutory levy. As part of
the ongoing programme, the Commission is planning a similar exercise on
Adult Gaming Centres. Under the new gambling laws in the UK vetting will be
thorough, involving completion of forms, investigation and review by the
Commission’s Inspectorate and other staff, and where appropriate,
interviews.
. As a keen race-goer, I will relish
the opportunity to make a contribution to the sport. To acquire this they
will have to undergo a three part “fit and proper” test along
the lines now applicable to casinos.
Newspapers began publishing their own pool coupons (until the
Courts declared the practice illegal in 1928) and individual bookmakers
offered a variety of betting opportunities. Players know what to expect and are not exploited; and
In May 2009 a mystery shopping exercise undertaken by the
Commission throughout England revealed a disturbing failure rate. The
exercise covered all the major betting operators, accounting for around
80% of betting shops, and the initial results showed that in 98% of the
100 shops visited a 17 year old was allowed to place a bet at the
counter.
The Royal Commission was in favour of the provisions of legal
facilities for betting off the course and the licence betting shop reappeared in 1960, 107 years after it had first been made illegal. By the end of the
1920′s, the football pools, and particularly Littlewoods (5) under
the entrepreneurial guidance of the Moores brothers, had begun to
thrive. Is the applicant suitable
to take a role in the industry? Secondly, does the applicant have
adequate financial resources? Thirdly, is the applicant appropriately
knowledgeable and professionally competent?
The Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGIT)26 will continue to
raise funds from the gambling industry and are committed to rising over
[pounds sterling]5 million every year from now until 20012/13. A new
body the Responsible Gambling Fund has been set up to distribute the
money wisely and effectively in line with public policies set by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
(2) According to Dr Anne Wright CBE, Chair of the National Lottery
Commission there is a continuing decline in underage play which shows an
effective regulatory framework together with a socially responsible
operator making it very difficult for children to access National
Lottery products.
In a press release issued by the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport on 9 June 2009 detailing the new regime Mr Sutcliffe said:
1. Today the Test and County
Cricket Board (TCCB) has a regulation forbidding players to gamble on
matches in which they take part. With this in mind the all
efforts from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the
Commission together with all other regulating and assisting bodies must
work proactively and together to minimise the possibility of corruption
in sport from inside the game to the lay person.
The first part of the “fit and proper” test issued under
new gambling laws is to do with probability. They will also have broader powers
including powers to impose fines and commence prosecution under the new
gambling laws in the UK.
The gambling laws in the UK may have relaxed however new changes
will have a big impact on the gaming industry especially for bookmakers.
“We have already received hundreds of applications but we
believe there are still people out there who need to apply. The ban remains on broadcast advertising of
betting offices.
Personal Licences
The Street Betting Act of 1906 has gained some notoriety as an
example of class biased legislation. This includes the Professional and Amateur Sports
Protection Act of 1992 (28 USC ss3702) that prohibits the expansion
of state-sanctioned, authorised, or licensed gambling on amateur and
professional sporting events in the United States. Organisations include The Financial Services
Authority, (16) The British Horseracing Authority, (17) The National
Lottery Commission, (18) Ofcom (19) and the Gambling Appeals Tribunal.
(20)
(26) The Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT) was established in
2002 and since May 2009, following an organisational restructure, it has
concentrated solely on fundraising. (9) Specialist companies now operate to give advice
and odds. London
will host the 2012 Olympics, Glasgow has the 2014 Commonwealth Games and
England is bidding to host the 2018 World Cup. Gambling remains crime free;
Each licence holder will receive notice of the change to the annual
fee in writing from the Commission. The Gambling Commission (the Commission) regulates gambling in
the public interest. Any operator who considers the
changes detailed below will alter their licence category or type are
able to contact the Commission.
(14) Gardiner, S and Gray, J, ‘Can sport control its betting
habit?’ (2004) 89Sports Business International 55.
Gardiner, S and Gray, J, ‘Can Sport Control its Betting
Habit?’
By the mid-19th century betting and sport were firmly established.
Gambling was typical of a corrupt aristocracy and it was simply up to
them if they chose to lose ‘everything’ gambling. and Welch, R., Sports
Law (2005), 3rd Ed, Cavendish Publishing
London: The Stationary Office.
Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe announced on 9 June 2009 a new
voluntary funding arrangement to bring in at least [pounds sterling]15
million over the next three years for research, education and treatment
of problem gambling.
(4) Aristocrats bet on their footmen and promoted the races.
(13) soccernet.espn.go.com/zoneindex?cc=5739.
Recently Paul Lee, a senior partner and Board Chairman at Addleshaw
Goddard LLP, was appointed as the new Chair of the Horserace Betting
Levy Board taking up over the post from Robert Hughes CBE on 1 October
2009 for a four year term.
1. A new fee arrangement is introduced for off-course
bookmakers who do not provide gaming machines on their licensed betting
premises.
All fee bandings that are set with reference to gross gambling
yield, gross gaming yield and gross value of sales will be increased by
10% to reflect changes in prices since their original establishment.
There has been a 10% increase in the fee bandings for external lottery
managers and an anomaly in them has been corrected.
Cricket was another rural pastime that the landed bucks found
attractive. It does so by keeping crime out of gambling, by
ensuring that gambling is conducted fairly and openly, and by protecting
children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by
gambling. When betting shops were
legalised the government established a Horseracing Betting Levy Board,
allegedly to compensate racecourses for the fall in attendance that
would come. It is alleged that tennis players
have been able to profit from insider information concerning their
matches.
Betfair has responded to these concerns by signing a ‘Memo – randum
of Understanding’ with several sports governing bodies. No person under 18 years of age may be admitted to a
betting office.
(8) Mason, T, Sport in Britain (1988), London: Faber Faber,
pp 59-68.
(15) www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk.
(25) New Levy Board Chair Appointed, No 111/09, 5 August 2009;
Horserace Betting Levy Board.
Betting on horses was also commonplace, often taking the form of
individual challenges between members of the landed gentry. Six
years later the government’s betting duty reappeared too.
Under these new laws in the UK betting operators will require an
operating licence from the Gambling Commission. Betting is not defined by
statute, but is generally regarded as entering into a contract by which
each party undertakes to forfeit to the other, money or money’s
worth if an issue in doubt at the time of the contract, is determined in
accordance with that other party’s forecast. When the
poor were led to emulate them however it was widely agreed that
something had to be done. With money at stake it was important to reduce the chances
of disagreement by drawing up a body of rules and regulations by which
both sides would abide.
Gambling and Sport
The recently created Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB),
chaired by Baroness Julie Neuberger, will work with the new distributor
and will set priorities for research, education and treatment.
(7) It is somewhat unclear whether under the regulations whether
they can gamble on matches they are not competing – this however would
have ethical and insider dealing considerations.
Fee and Licence Changes from 1 August 2009
Current Legislation and Policy in the UK
The Gambling Commission carries out a rolling programme of mystery
shopping exercises as part of its ongoing compliance programme. The Personal Functional
Licence application fee rises from [pounds sterling]165 to [pounds
sterling]185 and the Personal Management Licence application fee
increases from [pounds sterling]330 to [pounds sterling]370.
“The Jockey Club is concerned about the vulnerability of horseracing
to criminal behaviour and other undesirable activity as a consequence
of betting, and changes to the criminal law so as to maintain the
public’s confidence in the integrity of the sport. Since 2001, for example, in
the United Kingdom, an extensive consultation process has taken place
that generally supports a more liberal regime. On 1 September
2007 the previous arrangements were replaced by the Gambling Act 2005
which introduced personal management licence (PML) and personal function
licences (PFL). It is also vital that there is effective
policing of these new regulatory frameworks.
Gambling’s relationship with sport has been significant in two
other respects: as a motive for malpractice and corruption and as a
source of finance for sporting activities. The advertising of
individual betting offices and their facilities was originally
prohibited under the 1963 Act but from 1997 the ban has been relaxed to
allow advertisements in material form, for example, in newspapers,
journals and posters. In 1985 it was
still being levied at only 8%. (14)
Sports related gambling has exploited new technologies with
internet betting exchanges having proliferated together with the
opportunities provided by interactive services via digital television
and further new IT based services through websites owned by companies
such as ESPN giving advice and regular updates relating to betting
through for example their ESPN Soccernet Betting Zone website. The police have indicated that there is some corruption
within racing by criminals and that illegal betting, to the detriment
of both government and racing revenues, is being carried out on a
large scale.” (12)
(24) The rolling programme of mystery shopping exercises is one
feature of the Commissions ongoing compliance activity. The
programme looks at various aspects of social responsibility and the
Commission will be retesting betting operators who have previously been
found wanting or are suspected of foul play.
The discount on annual fees for each licence applied to operators
holding multiple licence types will be reduced from 10% to 5% to reflect
the actual cost of delivering compliance and enforcement work.
(21) Section 19 certificates were issued to people working in
specified roles within the bingo and casino industries. Attempts
to fix the results of matches in order to bring off betting coups appear
to have been very rare but in 1964, 10 players received prison sentences
for their part in a so-called betting ring. (23)
Under new gambling laws in the UK the Gambling Commission are to
licence all gambling operators and key workers.
A “Golden decade” lies ahead for British sport according
to Nick Harris of the Independent, a UK broadsheet newspaper. In
some countries around the world, gambling is essentially prohibited. A person who could afford an account with a bookmaker who knew
his financial circumstances well enough to allow him to bet on credit
did not have a problem. From 1 September 1997 the duration of
betting permits and licenses has been extended from one to three years.
A licence may be refused on the grounds that there are already
sufficient licensed betting offices in the locality to meet the demand
for betting. It has three main objectives:
(23) Currently costing on average [pounds sterling] payable
directly to the Criminal Records Bureau.
Multiple Licences
Betting put to good use
Once the licence is appointed under the new gambling laws in the
UK, operators will be subject to ongoing monitoring and inspection.
Saying of his appointment:
“I am delighted to be joining the Levy Board, particularly at a
challenging time for the industry. No person may act as a bookmaker
without the authority of a permit issued by the licensing justices which
currently stand at [pounds sterling]200 per year for General betting -
limited under category A to [pounds sterling]443,526 a year for Casinos
running under the Casino Act 1968 under category E.
(17) www.britishhorseracing.com
The Levy Board is a public body that raises money for the
improvement of horseracing and the advancement of veterinary science and
education. The downside is that if an exclusive
commission is paid to sport governing bodies when they recommend that
gamblers deal with ‘official’ or ‘approved’ betting exchanges a
conflict of interest is created where a sports contest integrity is
sacrificed in order to maximise sports related gambling revenues.
As with the regulation of gambling generally, there are a number of
differing regulatory regimes ranging from prohibition, on the one
hand, through to very liberal licensing. The early indication is that Internet betting exchanges
are creating opportunities for lucrative ‘remote gambling’ while
resulting in gambling anonymity that may ultimately endanger the
integrity of sports competition. Since then gambling on sport has been increasingly raided by
governments to provide income for the State and has also played a
crucial role in the financing of the major sports of football and horse
racing. With two
very distinct issues in discussion in this paper we will be looking at
the laws governing the gambling and betting in the UK combined with a
number of social policy issues detailing measures to regulate betting
for the benefit of society. Obviously this ruled out many of the working
class men and women.
The anti-gamblers’ first legislative success was an Act of
1853 to suppress betting houses and betting shops, which had been
springing up in places, often within public houses. Unlike a lottery, a
bet may involve skill or judgement. In a third grouping of
countries a liberal regulatory framework exists. The essential test
applied by the licensing justices in considering an application is
whether or not the applicant is a fit and proper person. A House of Lords Select Committee first examined the matter in 1901-02. Recently in the United Kingdom, as a result of horseracing
betting exchange abuses, there has been a succession of inquiries by
the Jockey Club into suspicious betting practices around horse races.
Similarly, it has been reported that the Association of Tennis
Professionals (‘ATP’) has discovered that bets of up to [pounds
sterling]80,000 were being placed on individual matches and that
there had been irregular betting patters around matches involving
players not ranked in the top 100. The stated objective is to have ‘effective
regulation [that will] see Britain become a world leader in the
field of on-line gambling.’
In contrast, the United States has passed federal anti-gambling
legislation. During modern times, sports betting
is the most popular form of gambling worldwide, with Internet-related
gambling generating over $3billion in annual reserves in 2002.
Gambling and sports creates an ‘unholy alliance.’ Gambling has
enhanced sport’s popularity, particularly on television whereby
bettors are more interested in the point spread, not the outcome of
a contest. The pool for one week in 1929-30 reached [pounds
sterling]19,000. The operators
concerned have already taken significant action to address the situation
including working with the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) to
produce an action plan and supplementary code of practice on age
verification. It does this through collecting a statutory levy from
bookmakers.
In addition to the introduction of revised arrangements for
operators who provide facilities for a remote casino, remote bingo and
remote betting on virtual events, there are additional changes to fee
bandings and for calculating working days for on-course greyhound
bookmakers. It produces an impression that life is governed by chance
and not by laws’.
The Government set up a Gambling Review Body in 1999 under the
chairmanship of Sir Alan Budd (11) looking at a wide range of the
legislation on gambling in Britain with its report submitted in June
2001. Pedestrianism (4)
probably began in the 17th Century.
By 1929 the police were very critical of both the law and their
role in enforcing it and said as much to the Royal Commission which at
the time was examining the police services. There is protection for children and vulnerable people
A Brief History of Sports Betting in the UK
Online Gambling
The new fees include revised arrangements for calculating working
days for General betting (limited) licence holders. Betting exchanges have created a fundamental change in
gambling because now anyone with a credit card can make money from
either a horse, a player, or a team offering odds on the website
and then keeping the stakes when people fail to beat the odds.
However, there is a realistic fear that people who have privileged
or ‘insider’ information – knowing for certain that a horse, a
player or a team is going to lose – are offering odds on betting
exchanges then maximising their revenues on unsuspecting gambling
customers.
In the United Kingdom, the market leader is Betfair.com. Paper presented at the Ninth Asser Annual International Sports
Law Lecture concerning “Sports betting policy in a European legal
perspective: freedom of services versus general interest”, The
Hague, The Netherlands, 16 September 2009.
So far as corporate clients are concerned, the test will be applied
to the directors and other persons holding positions of authority or
influence over it. The mystery shopping
exercises use under age volunteers (with parental consent) as permitted
under Section 64 of the Gambling Act 2005 to assess whether effective
controls are in place to prevent under age gambling.
3. Striking a balance
between sports competition and Internet gambling is a tricky
position. The protection of
vulnerable people remains my number one priority and I will not be
giving the industry a second chance to put this right.”
(18) www.natlotcomm.gov.uk
The fee categories for this type of licence will be based on annual
gross gambling yield.
With this in mind there have been a number of changes made to
legislation relating to gambling recently.
(1) Bradley v The Jockey Club (2004) EWHC 2164.
Betting on sport is growing in popularity, with many new forms such
as spread betting. Betfair makes its money by charging a commission to those
who win their bets.
Horseracing is a major attraction for Internet betting exchange
gambling. For clarity the previous remote
licence type, General betting standard, is now known as General betting
standard (real events).
The regulatory framework of the British betting industry has been
liberalised during the first half of the 1990′s. This licence type is known as General
betting standard (virtual events only). Many of the larger online bookmakers
are proud to boast they host their servers in countries such as the UK
or Australia, and are therefore more heavily regulated by the stricter
laws and regulations of these countries.
2 The Commission is responsible for licensing and regulating
gambling in Great Britain other than the National Lottery and spread
betting, which are the responsibility of the National Lottery Commission
and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) respectively. The treatment of football
was different to the treatment of horse racing. It covers on
line gambling, betting shops and AGCs and works closely with LACORS and
individual local authorities to ensure compliance. (6) By the mid-1930′s the firm was sponsoring
programmes on Radio Luxembourg which broadcast the results of matches on
Saturdays and Sundays. (15)
(16) www.fsa.gov.uk.
Personal licences increases are to reflect increased costs, in
particular those relating to processing Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
checks. Betting by the poor led to debt which in turn led to crime. The Commission’s Director of
Regulation, Nick Tofiluk said in a press release in August:
Following the joint consultation by the Gambling Commission (the
Commission) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on
proposals for Commission fees, Ministers have agreed changes to the
application, annual and variation fees payable in a number of licence
types and categories. (3)
(22) August deadline only three weeks away for section 19
certificate holders; Press release, 11 August 2009, The Gambling
Commission.
The match fixing scandal(s) in cricket shows that there is a need
for an effective regulatory framework concerning gambling and sport. In Britain, over the
last few years an increasingly liberal approach has been adopted.
However as discussed and with new laws and regulations in place law and
policy in betting is once again under the spotlight.
As part of the new gambling laws in the UK the Gambling Com -
mission will have a wider remit that the Gaming Board, which will extend
to betting and online gambling. (2)
* Sports Management Department, Birkbeck College, London, United
Kingdom. The planned fee increases are introduced by
statutory instrument which was laid on 9 July 2009 and, following
Parliamentary process, are intended to come into force on 1 August 2009.
Employees in the bingo and casino industry who still hold
certificates of approval, issued under section 19 of the Gambling Act
1968 known as section 19 certificates must have applied for their new
personal licence before the end of August 2009 in order to guarantee
their application is determined by the end of the year. It
is prohibited in some areas and regulated in others through strong and
enforceable government legislation. A bookmaker
operating from a betting office requires a licence for the premises
issued by the licensing justices. (8)
There are several regulators based in the UK that handle all issues
relating to online gambling and their restrictions. By 1850 the State was being pressurised into
doing it. It will continue to collect
donations from gambling licence holders as well as from industries that
profit from gambling.
Gambling has always been a part of the modern sporting world,
although the public response to it has varied from one period to
another. (13)
(10) See Hunter, W, Football Fortunes: Results, Forecasting,
Gambling and Computing (1996), Harpenden: Oldcastle; ‘A good
bet’, Fair Game, Channel 4, 22 May 1995.
Betting operators who in addition to betting on real events such as
sports events, offer virtual racing through means of remote
communication will now require both a General betting standard (virtual
events) and a General betting standard (real events) licence.
Probably the most important change affecting bookmakers in regards
to the new gambling laws in the UK is the establishment of a new single
regulatory authority, the Gambling Commission whose remit is:
(3) Gardiner, S., James, M., O’Leary, J. I look forward
to working with both racing and bookmakers and am hopeful that we can
work together to ensure that the Levy system continues to benefit all
those with an interest in racing.” (25)
The ultimate aim of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and
the Gambling Commission is to keep gambling fair and safe for all.
An operator who stands at a meeting televised and shown at a
betting premises run by a Commission operating licence holder which
starts after 8am and ends after 7pm at, for example, a BAGS meeting,
need not count that meeting towards the overall total number of days in
determining the appropriate banding for a General betting (limited)
licence.
The discount on annual fees for each licence applied to operators
holding multiple licence types will be reduced from 10% to 5% to reflect
the actual cost of delivering compliance and enforcement work.
A new remote licence type will be available for operators who
provide facilities for remote betting on the outcome of a virtual game,
race or other event or process. (24)
Multiple Licences
It is now a legal requirement that all online gambling sites
dealing with real money gaming must be regulated by the government of
where the games are hosted – for example; many online bookmakers operate
out of countries such as Gibraltar due to laxer tax laws, as well as
lower taxes and are therefore under the jurisdiction of the Gibraltan
authorities for remote gambling. It was aimed at all off-course
betting. Betting
added another dimension of excitement to the uncertainty of sport itself
and it was excitement, which the leisured rural classes were especially
seeking, particularly in a countryside whose range of more conventional
pursuits soon began to pall in the eyes of the young, married, leisured
males.
The changes to personal licence fees set out in consultation
proposals, will take effect on 11 August 2009. The tax on pools betting came much
earlier and was much higher at 42% in 1985. This was also facilitated by the Royal Commission
of 1949-51 having relatively sophisticated economic and statistical
apparatus which enabled it to show that personal expenditure on gambling
was only about 1% of total personal expenditure, that gambling was then
absorbing only about 0.5% of the total resources of the country and that
it was by then rare for it to be a cause of poverty in individual
households.
(19) www.ofcom.gov.uk
The annual fee for general betting standard licence holders in
categories A-C who do not provide gaming machines on their licensed
betting premises will be held at 2008 levels. Any bingo or
casino worker still operating under the permissions granted prior to
September 2007 under a section 19 certificate will put their employment
status at risk if they do not get their application to the Commission
…”22
“I am confident that the new structure will be successful. As well as this,
there are several charities and Government run schemes that are
available to help gamblers that may have an issue with gambling, or more
importantly relating to laws of gambling, suspect foul play in a UK
based online bookmakers. This is to recognise
the anomalous market conditions faced by operators standing at
Bookmakers’ Afternoon Greyhound Service (BAGS) greyhound meetings
staged for broadcast to the off-course betting industry, rather than to
satisfy local market demand.
Gambling or betting and sport have almost been inseparable and
gambling has been subject to considerable regulation by the State.
Gambling has close links with the general commercialisation of sport and
with corrupt practices in sport which can be illustrated by such affairs
as the Hansie Cronje Affair, 2020 cricket issues surrounding Alan
Stamford and other cases such as Bradley (1) in horse racing. Any existing
section 19 certificates will cease to have legal effect on 31 December
2009.21
(6) The average price of a 3 bedroom detached house in East Sussex with 2 acres of land in 1976.
Since the dawn of sport, gambling has been in its constant champion.
Ancient drawings on primitive cave walls find that gambling has
existed for thousands of years. Existing section 19 certificate holders were given two
years to make their personal licence applications to the Commission.
Football was a very attractive proposition both to the bookmakers
and punters, before 1900 some newspapers had offered prizes for
forecasting the correct scores as well as the results of a small number
of matches and early in the 20th century a system of betting on football
coupons at fixed odds had developed in the north of England.
Changes to Fees
(5) A Littlewoods bookmaker would collect your pools each week
going from door to door.
by Genevieve Gordon *
(9) ‘Bookies bet on football bonanza’ The Observer, 7
January 1996, p 6.
(11) Gambling Review Report (2001),
As a continuing programme the Commission will be conducting mystery
shopping exercises at a number of licensed betting operator’s
premises in the future. Further, in April
2003, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport produced a
position paper, ‘The Future Regulation of Remote Gambling’ (see
www.dcms.gov.uk). This
website claims to be ‘the world’s largest online betting company’
with an estimated turnover of [pounds sterling]50 million per week.
Betfair simply serves as a broker, matching people who want to bet
with people prepared to offer odds and bringing them together on its
website. In the United States, there are many
instances of specific sports gambling legislation to govern the
behaviour of people within and outside sports. (7) Football has occasionally been
shaken by allegations that matches have been thrown, usually in the
context of championship games, promotion or regulation issues. It
of course flourishes as an ‘illegal underground activity’. In 1906 came the
legislation.
The operator licence application fees from 1st August 2009 have
been reduced by 5% to reflect increased efficiency and two new types of
licence have been introduced.
2. The survey of nearly 9,000 children aged between 12 and 15 in
England and Wales was conducted by Ipsos MORI and the Centre for the
Study of Gambling at the University of Salford. As
The Times put it in the 1890′s, it ‘eats the heart out of
honest labour
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