Alderney To Offer New Licensing Framework

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The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) is one of the leading online gambling jurisdictions. It has released a new online gambling licensing framework that it will be adopting in the future. This announcement was appropriately timed with the ongoing Gaming Executive Summit in Madrid. This summit, now in its third year, is being held from July 7 to July 9. The leaders of the online gambling industry are participating in the summit.

AGCC Chief Executive, Andre Wilsenach, first outlined the need for revamping the regulatory mechanism. This was necessitated by rapid changes in both the online gambling industry and in the regulatory landscape. He spelled out some of the specific changes. New regulations and licensing regimes are emerging in Europe in the context of free flow of online gambling services across the continent. The bill to legalize and regulate online gambling in the United States is also coming up for debate. Media companies have entered the online gambling industry. The third factor was the growth in specialist service providers and in network gaming. Wilsenach said, "All of this calls for a new approach to deal with the technical requirements and business models in evidence." He added that AGCC was also keen to strengthen its regulatory mechanism of services provided from outside its jurisdiction.

Till now AGCC had the same licensing procedure for all applicants. Now it will be differentiating between B2C and B2B applicants. B2C applicants are those that will be having a relationship with the player. These will include online gaming operators. B2B applicants are those that would deal with other businesses such as those providing online gambling platforms for online gambling operators. These two different business models have different regulatory needs and therefore will require different licenses and licensing procedures.

AGCC has already developed the details for the revised regulatory framework. Robin Le Prevost, the Head of E-Commerce Development said, "We have taken a fresh look at how the business is conducted and developed a model which sits comfortably with the varied and changing requirements of players, other jurisdictions and the industry."

AGCC has the technical resources required of a leading gaming jurisdiction. It also offers a favorable tax structure. With this "regulatory framework for the 21st century" Alderney is set to drastically increase the number of licensees. Wilsenach said that one thing that will never change is the objective of "protecting the player".

Alderney is a part of the Cannel Islands and is a self governing British Crown dependency. AGCC was founded in May 2000 under The Gambling (Alderney) Law, 1999. It had earlier revamped its framework in as recently as 2006. This only goes to stress the rapidity with which online gambling is changing.

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