It looks as if the US Government isn’t the only one that sees something very wrong with the idea of having offshore poker companies serve their public. Now, the UK has decided to follow the US DOJ’s example and crack down on these said companies, allowing the UK to earn a big slice of revenue from these poker companies when they come to apply for a license to operate on UK soil.

New Legislation

The UK has a pretty sound reasoning for doing what they did. John Penrose, the minister for tourism and heritage, said that the law was all about plugging up a loophole that allows these off shore companies from having an unfair advantage over those companies which are actually based on the UK. This would compel those companies to come and apply for a license at the UK, allowing the government to earn quite a bit of revenue from the taxes. Most importantly, however, this new law would protect the citizens from unregulated gambling and from subsequently being exploited by the said sites. It ensures, according to John Penrose, that the British citizens will enjoy “consistent standards of protection, no matter which online gambling site they visit”.

Going about it the Right Way

Unlike the US, however, the UK’s decision did not provoke much outrage. For one thing, they did not cripple the companies affected. In fact, it was like an open invite to come and apply for a license, which Bodog already did. Furthermore, since online gambling isn’t exactly illegal in the UK, nobody was left without a source of income to turn to if the law passes through. It’s sort of like a win-win thing where every decision is just ‘right’ and not exploitative. It wasn’t an explosion of ill will like what happened with the US. Indeed, the UK simply handled the whole situation better and they’re going to be gaining a lot from it. There’s a really huge difference from how the US suspended everything without having anything to fall back on. Now, the congress is still squabbling on about whether they should legalize online poker or not.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are left without a source of income or are at least short of money because they have not been able to find a suitable replacement to the site’s that the government blocked. Furthermore, the US did it without any warning whatsoever to the poker sites, which would have helped them to prepare for the payments, whereas the UK is actually giving them time to set things up.

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