After years of a process drawn out a little, it was seeming as if Brexit had caught up and preparations would be made for the final adjustments required to see it through, but then the ongoing pandemic happened and threw a lot of questions around how much longer the process would take and whether or not there would be further delays.
Now there is more news appearing once again of what a potential trade deal could look like and any dates that may be involved with this decision, but there are now growing questions regarding what may happen in the online territory as rules and regulations may differ.
One of the bigger concerns is around online casinos and online gambling in general, there are a number of regulations in place for licensing within the UK that allow for operators to be registered under this licensing whilst also maintaining the rules within the country, but recent changes to regulation through adjustments to platforms such as the Gamstop initiative which had been aimed at reducing participation options for problem gamblers, many operators have chosen to register outside of the country in order to keep the licensing for the online gaming platform but avoiding many of the restrictions through these initiatives – this leads to sites being register in countries such as Malta and Gibraltar as the list of casinos not on gamstop continue to grow, but the exit from Europe may eventually cause issues here.
Adjustments in taxation for example could mean that many of these countries aren’t as much of an attractive option to many of these operators and despite the restrictions being in place may lead to many having to get a new operating license and force them back into the UK and under the scrutiny of these restrictions, and given the recent success found as many had the freedom to operate elsewhere during the pandemic it could lead to a shrink in a market that has been otherwise extremely successful.
This may not be the only sector heavily impacted either as many different online entities operate in a similar way and have been largely impacted by other regulation changes, an example here can be seen within the introduction of GDPR across Europe and how it had an impact on companies based in countries such as the US and the adjustments that needed to be when operating internationally to ensure that the regulations could be met. There will be a lot of adjustments required in the coming months as the outlined date for a deal to be made has been for January 1st despite the ongoing challenges during the pandemic, if operators particularly for online casinos aren’t able to make the required adjustments early then we may see many have to make drastic changes that could make the current regulations much more enforceable where the current environment allows for the rules to be skirted in many different places, once again limiting playing options for many.
