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FairCasinos
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 Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2004 8:14 pm Post subject: Isle of Man Renaissance |
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This is an InfoPowa report (taken from Bet2Gamble.com):
http://www.bet2gamble.com/PlayerResources/News/InfoPowa_News/InfoPowa_ Archive.html
It looks like the new requirements are going to be more lax. I still don't fully understand why all the original casinos left this licensing jurisdiction. It was the safest and most regulated of them all.
I think Alderney is now a rival in terms of player safety. A list of current Alderney licensees and links to more information can be found here:
http://www.gamblingcontrol.org/index.cfm/cat/Licensees/page/Interactiv e_Gaming_Licensees
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Fixing the jurisdiction
InfoPowa
March 1st, 2004
After a disastrous start as the hoped for internet gambling jurisdiction of choice, the Isle of Man lost all five of its big-name casino operators last year but has learned the lessons and is staging a comeback.
IGN writer Bradley Valerius reported this week that months after the island's demise as a premier I-gaming center, the jurisdiction has made numerous changes to return to being a desirable tier-one destination.
The Isle of Man last appeared on the I-gaming radar screen in September 2003 when Littlewoods' left the island to relocate to Curacao. In September 2001, Littlewoods was among the first three operators to receive licenses to operate online casinos in the jurisdiction, but just two years later it was the last of five to shut down or relocate.
The Isle had sought to create a respectable tier-one regulatory environment, but inevitably its requirements were too expensive and time consuming for its operators.
After the loss of Littlewoods, the Isle of Man's government declared that it wished to continue pursuing I-gaming licensees and would remain a tier-one jurisdiction. Regulatory changes began taking place immediately. The first such change was the appointment of an e-gaming "ambassador" to investigate how the Isle could best meet the needs of the industry and work to develop and promote the Isle as a leading e-commerce and I-gaming environment.
The Department of Trade and Industry chose former Rank Interactive director John Gilmore, who has over 30 years of experience in the global gambling sector, to fill the role.
Since his appointment five months ago, Gilmore has advised the Isle of Man's government to make some key regulatory adjustments that should make the jurisdiction a more favorable destination for operators.
The Isle previously prohibited some its operators from offering poker and progressive jackpots--two of the largest money-makers in the business. Gilmore's first major action was to convince the Isle's regulatory authorities to permit poker and progressive slots by proving to them that anti-collusion and anti-fraud software had improved significantly enough in the last few years to minimize the threat of cheating.
Gilmore also simplified what used to be a very tedious and costly certification process. The government no longer requires the inspection of every site adjustment before the operator may initiate a change. Now certified software no longer needs approval for changes unless those changes are made to the random number generator or the rules and regulations of games.
Another crucial change that Gilmore helped implement was the removal of a hefty $2 million dollar surety bond that operators were required to have in place for protection against players with outstanding money. Now an insurance bond, the price of which is negotiable, serves as valid protection, making the Isle a much more approachable place for smaller operators.
Yet despite the changes, the Isle still has no online casino operators and no immediate prospects.
"It would be wrong for me to say that they are clamoring because we are fighting from behind the line on this one, and we're only at the moment telling people how we've changed and how we've made it a lot easier," Gilmore said. "So that's what we're trying to do at the moment--redress that sort of exodus and that bad publicity we had up until September last year. But we're trying."
The recent transfer of e-gaming from the governance of the Department of Home Affairs to the Department of Trade and Industry should help the Isle promote itself.
"The Department of Home Affairs is a regulatory body," Gilmore explained. "They license people and they regulate. So there is no way that they could promote and develop. So I managed to take that away and stick it into the Department of Trade and Industry, which is the commercial arm of the government, where we can do the developing, promoting and advertising and go out and seek people, which has made it a lot easier. It gives a lot more opportunity to do what we want to do and to sort of shout about it as well."
Setting online casinos and their disastrous past aside, the Isle seems well on its way to becoming a burgeoning e-commerce capital, due largely to its very low tax regime. By 2006, there will be absolutely no corporate tax on businesses on the Isle.
Two Irish sports books, Paddy Power and Chronicle, have launched from the Isle within the last few weeks. The bookmakers pay a 1.5 percent tax on their gross gaming yield on all bets outside of the United Kingdom. They must pay a 15 percent duty on bets to the United Kingdom because of an agreement with U.K. Customs that allows the operators to advertise and do business with U.K .citizens as long as they pay an equal tax rate. Paddy Power and Chronicle are the only bookmakers on the Isle, but Gilmore said there are already a couple of other potential licensees in negotiation stages.
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gaminglove
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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It has been announced now that the impending UK advertising ban on online gambling sites has excluded Alderney and Isle of Man licensed operations, after rejecting a few already. Notice that these are the only jurisdictions mentioned here and considered for casinos in the BEST category. In fact, I am sure many casinos will regret not staying or regret not locating in the Isle of Man.
Read the story here: http://www.faircasinos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30759
Alderney is arguably better now due to Isle of Man reducing its overly strict standards to encourage operations to locate there.
The government are still considering Antigua and Kahnawake but I will be very surprised if they get onto the 'white list' as they have no interest in play protection. |
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FairCasinos
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| Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| It is speculated that all jurisdictions in the European Economic Area will automatically be allowed to advertise. So although the British government didn't actually whitelist Gibraltar, they are allowed to advertise. Gibraltar haven't demonstrated much in the way of player protection. I currently have a dispute with a casino licensed in Gibraltar and have still yet to see what the licensing authority do about it. |
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