UK Sets Up Summit On Online Gambling

The UK is to host the first international summit on online gaming this year amid growing ministerial concern about the need to protect children and the industry's potential for criminal infiltration by rogue operators.

The UK last year became the only industrialised nation to introduce a regulatory framework for the online gambling industry with passage of the Gambling Act. However, with other countries - notably the US - refusing to regulate the industry, ministers acknowledge the UK is operating in isolation.

They want to ensure agreed measures are in place to stop children from using online gambling sites and to prevent the possibility of money laundering.

Tessa Jowell, culture minister, said: "This is a global problem and requires a global solution, which is why this summit is important."

The online gambling industry is growing rapidly, with revenues in 2004 of $9.3bn (£5.25bn), according to research by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein andGlobal Betting and GamingConsultants, which estimate that this will double by 2008.

Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have privately welcomed the summit following soundings from the Britishgovernment.

Online gambling jurisdictions, such as Malta, Costa Rica and Antigua will also be invited.

But it remains unclear whether the US will send representatives. The legality of online gambling is uncertain in the US, even though it is the industry's largest market, generating at least half of all revenues.

Successive attempts to ban internet betting in the US have failed, in spite of the efforts of Jon Kyl, a Republican senator, who has tried to introduce legislation outlawing the industry.

However, the Department of Justice continues to state that the provision of online gaming to US residents is a violation of US federal law.