Microgaming casinos leaving UK market

[vinylweatherman]

They are nearly all Casino Rewards, so plenty of skins, but not much choice of operator.

Not on the list, but now known to be applying, is the Casino UK skin of Vegas Partner Lounge.

32Red are surely 99.99% likely to be added to this list over the next couple of weeks.

It seems that UK fans of Microgaming are going to have to develop a taste for Casino Rewards, else a large number of UK licenced Microgaming skins will be off limits.

I am expecting to see some TV ads for Casino Rewards shortly, as they don't have the high profile of offshore casinos like All Slots that once advertised heavily on UK TV, and with the likes of All Slots off the menu, there is a gap to fill.

 

[mcgameboy]

So every Casino Rewards casino except Lucky Emporer, Luxury and Nostalgia. Wouldn't be surprised to see them added to the list soon enough.

 

[fun4all]

What happens in Scotland if the independence vote ends in separation?

The new laws (and certainly the tax) will then not apply to Scottish residents? Only England Wales and NI.

 

[Richas]

What happens in Scotland if the independence vote ends in separation?

The new laws (and certainly the tax) will then not apply to Scottish residents? Only England Wales and NI.

Gambling laws are currently a reserved power - reserved to Westminster. Planning for retail outlets is however devolved.

In the event of seperation the Scots would need to clarify their legal framework, set up their own regulator. It is yet another example of how seperation adds duplication and complication for no real gain.

This is all the white paper says on it:

Gambling: it is estimated there are 30,500 problem gamblers in Scotland[280]. With independence, Scotland will have the powers to better tackle problem gambling through effective regulation of the industry, in contrast to Westminster's approach of greater deregulation[281].

Which is a little bit funny given this thread on the tightening of UK regulation in parrallel with the referendum.

 

[vinylweatherman]

What happens in Scotland if the independence vote ends in separation?

The new laws (and certainly the tax) will then not apply to Scottish residents? Only England Wales and NI.

It depends on how the operators see it. They have decided to either get a UK licence or "pull out of the UK market". They probably haven't even thought of this possibility, and even if they can, may not go back into an independent Scottish market for some while, if at all.

If they do, then there could be a flow of English players looking to buy a nice house north of the border so they can keep playing where they damn well like.

 

[Richas]

Come 1st October all UK facing sites will need the UKGC logo on their homepage along with a link.

The UKGC also publish a list of issued licences and even some applications (you can apply in confidence so not all) here:

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

Applications for a transitional licence might start showing up soon (must be in by 16th Sept) or might not go live in this list until the 1st October.

There are 863 Remote licences listed on the basic online search today - the download of the register extract shows it broken down by applicant name, trading name, domain name.

The domain name list once sorted alphabetically is probably the easiest way to track change over this transition period. 417 show today with some inactive in that total, there are 1986 trading names many of them individual premises.

Haven't time to do a full comparison to the old dataset but with 14 hours to the deadline UGGC are up to 957 active remote licences listed. Again there may be more who have applied and are not listed yet - so 94 more than a month ago. There were a couple that were suspended so that means a couple of extra new ones to the total.

 

[Richas]

Haven't time to do a full comparison to the old dataset but with 14 hours to the deadline UGGC are up to 957 active remote licences listed. Again there may be more who have applied and are not listed yet - so 94 more than a month ago. There were a couple that were suspended so that means a couple of extra new ones to the total.

With 10 and a bit hours left, 961 active remote licences showing, the data processors at the UKGC are getting through about 1 every 4 hours...., how many more in the pending folder?