New Regulations for Online Casinos on Isle of Man

 Trying to stay up-to-date with global changes concerning the world of online casinos, the Isle of Man has made steps to improve their regulatory framework of the jurisdiction of online casinos. The government announced several changes to the Online Gaming Regulation Act (OGRA), which was established in 2001. The changes will relate specifically to three aspects of online casinos: disaster recovery provision, advertising & marketing and software testing. All these changes were announced this week at the International Casino Exhibition.

The regulatory requirements for holding a gaming license in the Isle of Man did not change to keep up-to-minute with the rapid growth in the online casinos, and the island soon became less of a draw as an offshore centre for the industry. These recent changes should make the island more attracted to business once again.

The changes are mostly focused on software testing. The aim will be to simplify the online casinos process of licensing and to reduce the costs, by shorten the process of software approval. These changes were recently agreed on by the Malta and Kahnawake jurisdictions to in their closer relationships with the private standards body eCOGRA.

The disaster recovery adjustments will allow licensed and regulated online casinos operators to take advantage of the top quality telecoms infrastructure and IT expertise, which is available on the Isle of Man, to provide a high level of disaster recovery.

There will also be some new regulations concerning advertising and marketing. New specialized activities of advertising and marketing will be organized, controlled and managed from the Isle of Man, to support the clients of online casinos.

The Head of e-gaming development for the Isle of Man Government, Bill Mummery, stated that the island had managed to attract big online casinos to the island in the last couple of years. Mummery believes that the legislative changes, made with help of Berwin Leighton-Paisner (a London-based international law firm) and the head of its gaming and betting practice, Hillary Stewart-Jones; will increase the competitive benefits for the economy of the island and the online casinos.

Mummery added that these are exciting and dynamic times and the Isle of Man with its 0 percent corporate tax strategy and nil capital gains will continue to be a leading jurisdiction for supporting the online casinos industry and its operators.
A spokesperson of the government of Isle of Man claims that the aim of the changes is to make it more attractive to licensees to locate themselves here and to develop the online casinos sector and the contribution it makes to the Isle of Man’s economy.

Since 2003, the Isle of Man has been marketing itself to the online casinos sector and it has adopted a groundbreaking approach to regulatory matters in its attempt to attract online casinos to its shores. Together with the attractions of listing an Isle of Man-incorporated company on AIM, this campaign has made the island an offshore centre industry of online casinos.