UK to Host International Online Gambling Sites Summit
The UK will host an international summit on online gambling, the first ever hosted by an industrialized nation.

The online gambling summit will address issues such as problem online gambling, use of online gambling sites by children and teenagers, and the potential for infiltration of the online gambling sites by criminal and terrorist organizations.



The move to hold this summit follows on the heels of the passage of the Gambling Act, which legalized online gambling sites, and established new regulations for both the land and online gambling industries. The Gambling Act passed amid a sea of opposition and only with heavy lobbying on the part of Culture Minister Teresa Jowell, who promised that the legalization of online gambling sites would be concurrent with extremely strict regulation. The Gambling Act, she maintained, would not exacerbate problem gambling in the UK.

Commonwealth states Australia, South Africa New Zealand, as well as online gambling jurisdictions such as Malta, Costa Rica and Antigua will be invited to the international summit.

The United States government, pointedly, will not send representatives. Online gambling sites occupy a rather murky legal territory in the United States. Specific legislation outlawing online gambling has failed to get past the Legislature every time it has been introduced, yet the US Justice Department maintains that the activity is illegal.