White List

The White List is a list of approved gambling jurisdictions.  Any online gambling company licensed in the a Casino White List territory is free to advertise its services in the UK, but those companies that are licensed elsewhere must switch to another licensing jurisdiction before they can do so. 

The Casino White List prevents many online gambling sites from advertising in the UK, thanks to a law that came into force on 01 September, 2008.

When the new law came into effect during September 2007, there were some big names that had something of a hard time, because popular licensing jurisdictions like Antigua and Kahnawake were conspicuously absent from the Casino White List.  Right now it only includes three that are outside the European Economic Area – Tasmania, the Isle of Man and Alderney.

Both jurisdictions appealed to be included in the list, but their efforts weren’t successful. A statement from the Gambling Commission said: “After careful assessment of their representations against the published criteria, the Secretary of State has also decided not to whitelist Kahnawáke (Canadian reservation) or Antigua.”

Online casinos that benefitted from the Casino White List were those already licensed within the European Economic Area or one of the whitelisted jurisdictions, because after September 2008 they suddenly had the advertising world all to themselves.

Update November 2008: Antigua and Barbuda strengthened their regulations to a level that the british Government were happy with and were added to the White List on 29th November.

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