Topic: UK Gambling Commission says UK based sites need a license! - page 2. (Read 11930 times)

In your email you indicate that you believe that we have written to you in error because; you do not

have any hosting in the UK; you do not market or advertise to UK residents; none of your team

resides in the UK; and you do not accept any financial or Bitcoin transactions from UK residents. In

relation to your final point, you state that: ‘bitcoin transactions are anonymous and we have no idea

where they come from. As such, we cannot simply turn the switch off from accepting UK-residents'

deposits as we do not know they are UK residents.’

I have below addressed the points you have raised in the hope that this will resolve matters.

You should note that section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, which makes it a criminal offence to

provide facilities for gambling without an operating licence authorising that activity, applies if remote

gambling equipment is located in Great Britain, or if the facilities are capable of being used in Great

Britain. Consequently, the fact that you do not have any hosting in the UK, do not market or advertise

to UK residents, and that your team do not reside in the UK, does not mean that a licence is not

required.

In response to the final point, it is our view that even if bitcoin transactions are completely anonymous

it is still possible for you to, and you should, implement means to identify if a player using bitcoin is

playing from a UK registered IP address and restrict such access based on the user’s IP address.

We note that you state that you do not accept any financial or bitcoin transactions from UK residents

which indicates to us that you are already able to identify the location of customers from their IP

addresses.

If gambling sites are successfully blocked to those in Great Britain trying to access them, it will

amount to ceasing activity. However, we are aware that IP blocking technology is by no means fool

proof and may be circumvented. As a result IP address blocking alone may not be sufficient to

ensure that consumers in Great Britain are blocked from gambling on the website. To reassure

yourself that you are not at risk of committing an offence, even if you implement IP blocking, you may

wish to consider what other mechanisms you could use in order to prevent the use of your facilities to

gamble by consumers in Great Britain, for example by asking for the country of location at customer

registration.

Details of how you can apply for an operting licence can be found on our website. In answer to your

question, we not accept payment in bitcoin.

If you take immediate steps to remedy the situation, this may avoid the need for the Commission to

take the matter further.

Victoria Square House

Victoria Square

Birmingham B2 4BP

T 0121 230 6666

F 0121 230 6720

www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk

Should you have any queries in relation to the content of this letter please contact me via email at

[email protected] or by telephone on 0121 230 6686.

Yes, they should definitely wait for the reply. I didn't mean they shouldn't and ignore future threats from those people. Just that most of the other site have given up on this and have accepted to their demands of not accepting UK customers unless they obtain a license , I feel they should have responded with questions instead of just giving up on UK customers.

I would wait to see what their reply is first. They act as an authority in many minds and whilst they may not be able to carry out any threats in the bitcoin world, they most probably can in the fiat world. I am keen to see what their response to Adam is. Thanks for asking the question Adam.

With them taking a month to reply, doesn't really look like its a serious issue to them . It might just be a warning to atleast have half of the sites stop accepting UK customers which indeed have.

Wanted to chime in here, Chris Sullivan also sent us the letter on June 15th, 2015. We've replied back asking him to clarify as we do not use any 'financial institutions' to process any UK-based transactions, to which he sent another pdf email with the 'money's worth' response today.

We've emailed him back with our statement that we do not officially service any UK-based residents as our deposits are anonymous and we do not monitor IPs. We have also told him we would consider paying for the license if he accepted BTC, and to please let us know the price of said license as we operate exclusively in bitcoin and do not have sterling for him.

Last time he/his agency took a month to reply. I'll keep you guys posted.

Adam

It actually got me wondering that how do big sportsbooks like Bet365 manage to pay that amount only for UK , specially when it also involves annual fees to be paid by them

It actually got me wondering that how do big sportsbooks like Bet365 manage to pay that amount only for UK , specially when it also involves annual fees to be paid by them

You are right, thanks for your great links, it seems that casinos need to pay over several million dollars to get the UK gambling license according to the second link(my estimation is roughly correct), it is extremely expensive, and no btc casinos or seldom casinos can afford it.

It is definitely going to be a big amount which would probably surpass their revenue as most of the bitcoin
casinos have major competitors.

I did some searching and found some details, but it varies a lot and there is also an annual fees.

http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/FAQs/Getting-a-licence/what-are-the-total-costs.aspx

http://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-cost-to-get-an-online-gambling-license

Most of the bitcoin casinos probably don't see a massive revenue just from UK customers, and can probably bank on the use of TOR  than spend that amount on gambling licenses(which in future could become a problem for other countries as well )

Do you know the price of an UK license?

I am pretty sure it is extremely expensive so that those casinos can't afford and won't buy the license, I know in Phillipphines first cagayan gambling license costs 50000 USD to get the license, and other expenses are excluded from that license. Those best casinos have it, like bodog Asian, m88 casino, and so forth.

Now that Philipphines' license is expensive, UK gambling license must be more expensive than it, maybe costs 1 million USD? Best sportsbooks and casinos like WilliamHill, bet365, ladbrokes have UK license, which are all public companies.

I could do that indeed but why on earth am I being made to feel like a criminal for wanting to bet with bitcoin??
That is the issue.
And how long before the American Gambling Commissions  go down the same route?
Surely it won't just stop at us in Britain.

Concerning this high activity from the commision, I doubt that it will be safe to access an unlicensed sites through a VPN as well. As there is a risk that the commission could be knocking your front door the next morning.

It has become a very grey area now.
I really don't know what to make of it.
 

It did have some affect on bitcoin sites. Directbet and Fairlay seems to have blocked UK based IP's already .

Quote from: FortuneJack on June 17, 2015, 08:16:08 AM

We have added Great Britain into our list of blocked regions because online gambling is illegal there

I think that is technically incorrect.....we can do as much online gambling as we want from the UK as long as the outfits we bet with have a licence to accept British bets....whether they be fiat or bitcoin.

It is clear, however, that Bitcoin (and other crypto-currencies) fall within the definition of “money or money’s worth” as defined in the Act.