Monthly Archives: November 2017

Colombia has been making huge leaps in the legalization of online gambling recently. Last year, Coljuegos – the Colombian gambling commission and main regulating body – began to finally issue licenses to allow various online casino operators to provide their services within the country. Since then, at least three different websites have launched .co domains in order to operate in Colombia, with a lot more on the way. With that said, their betting and casino services still remain limited compared to those of their European brethren, which is why Coljuegos has been moving forward with making further legalizations in order to give Colombian gamblers more freedom. Their latest development, which came into effect on November 14th, would allow for casinos to feature a live section.

Live casino is an extremely popular gambling activity which allows players to bet on real, physical, tangible casino games such as roulette and blackjack, which happen in a land-based casino (or at least on a set that’s designed to look like one). The games are broadcasted live through webcam, essentially streamed to the various gamblers, who are allowed to influence them and place bets on them. For example, in a game of live blackjack, you may place a bet and request the dealer to give you cards. As such, a real person curates your casino experience, just as they would in a real casino. Live casinos have been crazily popular in Europe not just because of the sense of tangibility and realism they offer, but also due to their variety and various themes and trends. In a typical online casino there will be multiple different rooms for each game with different limits, dealers/croupiers, spoken languages and even topics of discussion (it’s not too uncommon to see a room where the dealer chats with its players about politics or sports while dealing cards).

Colombia wanted a piece of the pie that Europe was having, which was the primary cause behind the legalization – to increase the liquidity of the country’s gambling scene. So far, licenses have been issued to allowed Colombians to enjoy live blackjack, roulette and, interestingly enough, baccarat. In addition, Colombian players who enjoy poker will also be able to play that live online, and internationally, too! According to the new laws and regulations put into place, they’ll be able to play against people from France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and other countries across the world that have agreed to share their liquidity when it comes to poker. In very simple terms, what that means is that Colombians can join various international rooms and, subsequently, win the price pools of other players, converted into pesos. While Colombia is still taking baby steps into the world of online gambling, things are looking more than promising for the time being, and it’ll certainly be exciting to see where things are headed next!

Gambling, much like smoking or drinking alcohol, has always been an industry squarely aimed at adults – you can’t participate in it unless you’ve got absolute proof that you are of legal age to engage in it, and if you find a way to subvert that, well, the casino’s not at fault at all! Still, despite all their claims that casino games are most certainly and without a doubt aimed at an adult demographic, the evidence against that is hard to overlook. Sure, traditional casino games like blackjack or roulette most likely won’t appeal to the overwhelming majority of children, and betting sites are typically far too complex for someone so young to successfully navigate, but what about slots? They’re pretty, colorful, have cute animal characters, and the overwhelming majority of them can (and probably will) be enjoyed by a very young audience. And worst of all, slots (unlike any other form of gambling) can often be played for free, without any sort of registration required. That, combined with their child-friendly appearance, could promote gambling to a young audience. Well, the Gambling Commission has noticed, and they’re having none of it.

Teaming up with the Advertising Standard Authority, UK’s Gambling Commission has officially issued an order for child-friendly slots to be removed from a large number of online casinos “effective immediately”. As many of you may be aware, the Gambling Commission’s word is basically law in the world of legal/licensed casinos, which is why many have begrudgingly began to remove many of the games which have been deemed to be aimed at children, such as NetEnt’s popular “Jack and the Beanstalk” slot. While many are upset by the sudden ruling, some casinos, such as William Hill, have embraced it as a way to win favor with Parliament, whose rulings (such as a ban on gambling-related advertisements) have grown increasingly more strict as cases of gambling addiction grow by the day. The newest ruling by the Gambling Commission has undoubtedly been made with nothing but the best of intention, but unfortunately, the murky wording of the order may give the Commission an excuse to pull practically any slot they like off any platform.

In the open later to online casinos, the Commission never specifies an exact list of slots that violate their policies. They ask casinos and slot developers to use their own judgment – to quote directly from the document, “if you are uncertain about whether an ad might appeal particularly to under-18s, CAP advises you to exercise caution and amend or withdraw the ad.” For reference, according to earlier context, “ad” refers to both advertisements using kid-friendly mascot characters and slots that offer “free play” without a registration. This is a problem because, with a few exceptions (like the Playboy slots), the overwhelming majority of online slots can be subjectively described as meant to appeal to children and removed without a fair trial. Admittedly, the Gambling Commission hasn’t taken any actions other than implore casinos to moderate themselves, but if this trend continues, the whole thing may very easily be used to censor content that, for one reason or another, is unappealing to either casinos or the Commission.