Microgaming And The New UK Licensing and Advertising Act

Are you a UK resident? Have you received a message from your favourite Microgaming casinos that you will not be able to play with them any longer?  We explain what has happened with the law in the UK and which Microgaming casinos will still welcome UK consumers as of 1 November 2014.

Background to the New Act

After years of debate, discussion and industry consultation, the long awaited new Gambling, Licensing and Advertising Bill was introduced to the UK Parliament on 9 May 2013.

As expected, this bill has brought about significant and important changes to the regulation of online gambling activities in Great Britain. Royal Assent was received on 14 May 2014 and the bill has formally been named the  “Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014”.

The most significant change to the older act of 2005 is that ALL operators who wish to offer or even just advertise gambling services to UK residents will now need to apply for a license from the Gambling Commission. The original cutoff date was 1 October 2014, but after a High Court challenge from Gibraltar, the new date for the Act to come into effect has been set as 1 November 2014.

As of December 1 2015, new 15% tax on gaming will be levied for all bets taken from UK customers. Needless to say, many offshore operators have decided to not apply for a license, including a number of Microgaming operators.

“The implication for Microgaming fans is that unless anything drastic happens, your choice of casinos will shrink dramatically.”

Specific Implication For Microgaming Operators and Casinos

UK based operators like 32Red Plc and Hippodrome have applied for a license. The big impact of the Act has been on offshore Microgaming operators who, with a few exceptions, have decided to not apply for a license. Most have already informed their UK customers that they will not longer be able to offer them a service.

Microgaming operators and owners have responded by either:

  1. applying for the UK license for all of their brands (e.g. 32Red, Roxy, Casino Rewards) or
  2. applying for a license for one brand, and moving all of their UK customers to this one brand (The Digimedia group, who have offered to their customers to move to the SpinCasino brand, which is not yet live)
  3. blocking UK residents on all their brands and offering to their customers to join a third party brand.

I Love Microgaming Casinos So Now What?

Here follows a list of all Microgaming casinos that will continue to allow UK consumers as of 1 November 2014:

Operator / Group Brands Accepting UK Residents
32 Red plc Business as usual for all brands:
32Red Casino
Nedplay Casino
Golden Lounge
Dash Casino
Casino Rewards All 28 brands including Captain Cooks Casino, Casino Action, Luxury Casino, Golden Tiger Casino, Virtual City Casino and Zodiac Casino
Roxy Group Roxy Palace Casino, Splendido
Vegas Partner Lounge No brands, customers were offered to sign up with Roxy Palace Casinos
The Jackpot Factory (All Slots etc) - Digimedia Customers invited to join Betway Casino or a new brand SpinCasino.com (tba)
Belle Rock Gaming (Jackpot City Casino) - Digimedia UK players will be migrated to SpinCasino.com (new – operated by Betway)
Fortune Lounge (Platinum Play Casino) - Digimedia Customers invited to join Betway Casino or a new brand SpinCasino.com (tba)
The Palace Group (Spin Palace etc) - Digimedia Customers invited to join Betway Casino or a new brand SpinCasino.com (tba)
Hippodrome Casino Business as usual
“The implication for Microgaming fans is that unless anything drastic happens, your choice of casinos will shrink dramatically.”
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