Vera John / Intercasino exiting UK Market

No it's not. They realise they made a mistake years ago handing out licences like free samples! They are simply cleaning up the mess which they created. They have done more in the last year to clean up the industry than ever before. There are now much clearer rules, responsible gambling tools and less shady operators out there. Happy to throw them under the bus when needed but need to give credit where it's due. Online gambling should be a safe and secure environment.

You can't get safer and secure than responsible gambling tools, casino blocking software, Gamstop etc.

You can only nanny state so much before operators just throw in the towel because it becomes too much a minefield taking on all of the responsibility, whilst it appears none lies with the gambler.

I was brought up to take responsibility for my own actions. It must be a generation thing because these days the younger ones look elsewhere to seek blame. Typical think of the children society.
 
You can't get safer and secure than responsible gambling tools, casino blocking software, Gamstop etc.

You can only nanny state so much before operators just throw in the towel because it becomes too much a minefield taking on all of the responsibility, whilst it appears none lies with the gambler.

I was brought up to take responsibility for my own actions. It must be a generation thing because these days the younger ones look elsewhere to seek blame. Typical think of the children society.

Its because operators are still failing despite these tools being brought in. Its laughably easy to walk past exclusion systems for example. If these are fixed then the problem goes away. A lot will be going before they are retrospectively hauled over the coals for their complete disregard for RG. I'm hoping down the line we are only talking about casinos for the right reasons, big wins, losses, game selection and not about how they allowed people to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds before actually speaking to them.
 
Its because operators are still failing despite these tools being brought in. Its laughably easy to walk past exclusion systems for example. If these are fixed then the problem goes away. A lot will be going before they are retrospectively hauled over the coals for their complete disregard for RG. I'm hoping down the line we are only talking about casinos for the right reasons, big wins, losses, game selection and not about how they allowed people to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds before actually speaking to them.

If they had complete disregard as you describe it, then some of those casinos wouldn't put lock withdrawals in place and limit responsible gambling options to the bare minimum. Alas, good casinos don't.

Tools are available for problem gamblers. But they need to help themselves first before pointing in the direction of casinos. I used Gamstop for a period of 12 months and tried to log onto my casino accounts. It didn't work as intended. Could I have circumvented it? Perhaps, but that is not the fault of Gamstop or the casino. It is the fault of the player. Simple as.
 
If they had complete disregard as you describe it, then some of those casinos wouldn't put lock withdrawals in place and limit responsible gambling options to the bare minimum. Alas, good casinos don't.

Tools are available for problem gamblers. But they need to help themselves first before pointing in the direction of casinos. I used Gamstop for a period of 12 months and tried to log onto my casino accounts. It didn't work as intended. Could I have circumvented it? Perhaps, but that is not the fault of Gamstop or the casino. It is the fault of the player. Simple as.

Some did have complete disregard is what I'm saying, others didn't. They also in a lot of cases have little to no self exclusion procedure which meant players could change an email address and sign up. As said, the best ones will be the ones still plugging into the massive market in 6 months time.
 
In Belgium the GC has tightened rules too on bonuses and responsible gambling since June 1st. Which basically means most casino's aren't offering bonuses or free spins anymore on a regular basis.

The casino's are only allowed to give a welcome bonus upto €250. The total amount of bonuses they are allowed to give is also capped at €250/month. Highrollers will just look for different options where they still get VIP treatment but which are also in they grey zone.

Deposit limits are at a maximum of €500/week on every casino or bookmaker unless you request it to be higher, which will then trigger some sort of SOW where they have to ask the National Bank if you have any outstanding loans and if you do the deposit limit can't be changed.

If they really want to be responsible now would've been the time to introduce a max stake and loss limit option alongside the deposit limit. But instead of that some casino's decided to introduce the lower RTP versions of some providers (Blueprint, Red Tiger) and max their profit, very responsible once again.
 
I never played at vera and john, I always assumed with a name like that it was some sort of bingo joint. Another effect of the smaller sites closing is more business gravitating to the bookie sites; ladbrokes, coral and betfair have, all by coincidence I'm sure, recently renovated their slots offering and layout.

Casinos won't now be able to rely on people losing their house, as it were, in order to gamble, it's going to have to be instead about a high volume of customers losing sensible amounts that they can afford. How that is achieved, without a more intrusive nanny state approach brought in, I'm not certain.

Competition is normally good for the consumer and any proposed changes brought in by ukgc should have to take that into account, on the other hand having hundreds of sites to gamble at is not good for gambling addicts and reducing gambling addiction. Some sort of sensible compromise, middle ground approach, seems to me the best way, with responsibility not shifting away from the player too much, but having control tools available that work and are not easy to circumvent.

If the ukgc actually had targets, i.e. this is the amount of gambling harm in the uk that we're able to define, we want to reduce this by 50%, or this is the amount of money laundering we estimate is going on, we want the casinos to work with us to reduce it. Cooperation and coordination rather than a hostile, jobsworth approach that I sense the ukgc are trying to use...
 
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Vera & John advising people to move to Virgin, Starspins & Jackpot Joy, they don't exactly have the same amount of choice as Vera & John though.
 
Aye. It’s a shame Starspins doesn’t have the same selection at least, given that it’s largely geared to a similar market as V&J.
 

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