For quite a long time, gambling as a leisurely pastime has been a popular form of activity for individuals of varying backgrounds, and it continues today. But when it comes to activities that can take a hold of your finances and seem like a lucrative opportunity it transpires that safety is of utmost importance. Owning and running a casino, even an online casino requires more than a passion but investment, planning and a license.
Casinos Licensing and How It Works
The first step to starting a casino is obtaining the appropriate gaming license. It is impossible to run any sort of legitimate gambling business without one. A casino license is usually issued by an authorized gambling committee. Not only does it open up the company to regulatory audits and checks but it also serves as proof that the business is a legitimate operation and its winnings guaranteed.
To acquire a license, an applicant must show that they have great character, trustworthiness, and honesty. The license application form would normally require personal data. Depending on the type of license wanted an applicant may also be needed to unveil insights about past business connections, work history, criminal records (for help, visit kanialaw.com), and finance. To ensure transparency of the gambling industry, each jurisdiction has a set of regulations codified by law. For example, in the USA, one such body is the state of Connecticut’s Division of Special Revenue (DSR). DSR is responsible for issuing casino-related licenses through its Licensing and Security Unit.
A review is carried out by the division and the State Police conducts an extensive background check on the applicant. They then give DSR a written report on their findings which also gets filed. A three-member Casino Application Review Committee reviews the results and requests from the executive director whether to issue or deny a license. Based on these recommendations, the Executive Director rejects or approves the applications.
How does it work for Online Casinos?
Whereas land-based casinos are fairly straightforward – being geographical present in a particular state or country makes it very apparent in whose jurisdiction you must apply for a license from, the concept of jurisdictions is a bit more flexible in the virtual realm of online casinos. The online casino has been around for a long time and has gained thousands of fans around the world. Unfortunately, the clients of these sites often pay all their attention to the cash bonuses or new games on offer, failing to give any attention to licensing. Online licensing is not only vital for a player’s safety and financial security, it also decides whether your winnings are exempt from taxation or not. There are hundreds of casino sites available online with varying license statuses. Some are fully licensed by a state regulatory body, each from a differing nation from the EU or the Caribbean. Some lack recognized licensing and some are purely predatory websites hoping to fraudulently steal money from their visitors. This state of play has made it necessary for casino comparison websites like Casino-India.in to rate the value of the different licenses for local players and filter out operators the lack recognized gaming licenses altogether. Operators who meet the licensing requirement provide a perfectly safe and secure gambling environment with the use of up-to-date encrypted technologies. With such technologies, it is impossible for third parties to steal or read the information provided by a player such as passwords and credit card information.
Operators are also required to make available a privacy policy that states whether any of the player’s information will be shared and with whom it would be shared. In this way, players are aware of who can have access to their account details. Operators are also required to take regular Random Number Generation test (RNG) to make sure every outcome of the games is random and unpredictable, thus ensuring the games are safe.
Organizations responsible for the licensing, monitoring and regulatory procedure of Online
Casinos
1. Curaçao License
Curaçao gambling licenses are the most popular jurisdiction for online casino licenses as they offer political stability in the country and are the cheapest. Many operators also prefer Curaçao gambling licenses due to the fact that they offer an all-round solution covering any game of chance. Being one of the first jurisdictions to license and regulate online gambling, its licensing process is fast, straightforward and cost-effective, making it a popular choice for business. Check out Curaçao eGaming for more information about this.
2. Maltese License
Malta is a little island in the Mediterranean, beneath Sicily and part of the EU. It is considered the most important online gambling jurisdiction in the world, granting licenses to over 380 online gaming sites since the year 2000 through the Public Lotto Ordinance and later through the Lotteries and Gaming Authority (MGA).
A Maltese MGA license has a validity of 5 years and a gaming tax of 0.5% of the licensee’s turnover. The biggest benefit of this license is that because Malta is in the EEA, players from other EEA countries get to keep their winnings from MGA licensed sites completely tax-free.
Other popular organizations include the UK Gambling Commission, and the Gibraltar Gambling Ordinance and Alderney Gambling Commission.
3. Swedish Gambling Authority
Until 2018, online gambling in Sweden was subject to a state monopoly, meaning that only state casinos were entitled to legally operate in the country. Even though foreign sites still accepted players from Sweden, there was no way for them to apply for the appropriate license and get out of the legal grey area.
In 2018, a new law passed changed this, as Sweden decided to allow interested domestic and foreign operators to apply for a national license from the Swedish Gaming Authority. This decision served a dual purpose. Firstly, to force out all unlicensed operators in the country and secondly; to offer better protection to Swedish players by closely monitoring the behavior of licensed operators. The licensing process was open to online casinos in August 2018 and the actual law went into effect on the 1st of January 2019.
Every casino is required to have a license and/or certificate from a relevant and trusted licensing authority. This license ensures that casinos, whether brick and mortar or online, meet established guidelines and minimum standards that offer fair play and the correct regulations to verify the identity of their players and to ensure that sensitive data is also kept safe.
