Who Regulates Online Casinos
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
When online gambling first appeared on the internet (roughly at about the exact same instant the internet itself appeared), it was — like pretty much everything else on the internet — afree-for-all.
You were as likely to get stiffed for legitimate winnings as you were to lose a hold’em hand to casino employees who could see all the other hands at the table.
Naturally, this didn’t happen all the time. But it doesn’t take more than one well-publicized rip-off to spoil an online casino’s reputation forever.
Some of the current organizations that monitor, test, and certify various aspects of the online gambling industry already existed, even back then, butthey were few and far between, and the gold rush was on with internet gambling.
US Gambling Laws and Online Regulation United States gambling law is governed by three sets of gaming regulations, one each for local, state, and federal entities. Some states have gaming regulations that go back more than two centuries; other states have yet to address major aspects of the industry at all. How we regulate the gambling industry. We regulate in a transparent, accountable, proportionate, and consistent way. Using a risk-based approach, we focus our resources on those issues and gambling businesses that potentially present the greatest risk to the licensing objectives. All commercial gambling businesses which hold a licence under the Gambling Act must comply with that legislation.
But with each embarrassing report of shorted withdrawals or collusion or outright fraud, legitimate online gambling operations realized that if they did not regulate themselves, governments wouldstep in to regulate — or even worse, prohibit — their operations.
Thus arose a small number of organizations focused on auditing, testing, and certifying the software and financial practices of online casinos. To carry the stamp of approval of one of theseorganizations, each online casino was required to meet certain minimum standards.
Who Regulates Online Casinos
Each of these companies, independent of and unrelated to casinos or any other gambling establishment, was (and is) considered a disinterested third party — a time-honored method ofensuring fairness in the dealings between other various parties.
Who Regulates Online Casinos California
The benefit of this was that the online casino enjoyed increased trust among gamblers, which of course translated into doing more business with gamblers.
Over time, these third-party certification companies became trusted, as well, by the various governments who were alarmed about the Wild West nature of the internet.