When it comes to online betting, questions of legality are surprisingly complicated. At the same time, they are potentially very simple depending on what you want to know. The existence of Gamstop casinos and non Gamstop casinos, the UKGC and other licensing authorities, and more besides, makes it important to know what the legalities are, for your own protection if nothing else. So it is useful to have some disambiguation, and that is what we are aiming for here.
As a gambler, your position needs to be crystal clear. This is important not because you could be in any legal trouble for betting illegally – that’s more or less impossible to do by accident – but to ensure that your time spent betting is not wasted. There are repercussions for betting in the wrong place, and to help you avoid them we are going to look at how you can be on the right side of any legal issues that may arise from membership of a casino site.
Is it illegal to bet at a non Gamstop casino?
No. Absolutely not. You can bet at non Gamstop casinos without any fear of legal repercussion. What is important is to make sure that you are betting at a licensed casino. That licence may be issued outside the UK, in which case the casino cannot possibly be on Gamstop. But it is not illegal for those casinos to offer betting services to non-UK customers. If you are betting at a UK casino that is not on Gamstop, the picture is murkier, but you are not braking the law. The casino is. That doesn’t mean you should bet at unlicensed UK casinos, though, because they can easily disappear, or be shut down by the law – and you will lose any money that you have in an account with them.
How do I know if a casino is licensed?
If the casino is based in the UK, it will have the Gamstop logo on the site, and will also typically have the UKGC logo and reference to its UK licence. Again, if the casino calls itself a UK casino and doesn’t have this, you should steer clear. A non-UK casino will still have evidence of its licence on the site. It may be a Curacao licence, or it may come from Gibraltar, or Malta, or another jurisdiction. If it has a licence, then it’s a legal casino – however, that doesn’t mean it is legally able to offer its services to UK customers.
What type of licensed casinos can I not bet in?
Now, bear in mind that this won’t mean you’re breaking the law, but casinos licensed in certain jurisdictions can only offer their services within those jurisdictions. If, for example, you want to bet at a Polish casino, you will need to be in Poland to do so. You’ll know this, because they won’t let you sign up from a UK IP address. If you use a VPN to get around that, they’re likely to know, and you won’t be able to attach a UK bank account to it. You won’t face any legal troubles for trying, but it’s just pointless – you won’t be able to access anything you win in a casino you can’t legally bet in.