The gambling industry shall be one of the most profitable types of business, with annual stable growth of about 7%. In 2023, the total capitalization of iGaming industry discernibly exceeded the threshold of $300 million. Of course, such an attractive market also shall have a number of difficulties and barriers for those wishing to participate in sharing such an impressive amount of financial means. And the first of these difficulties shall be the licensing procedure for this activity. We want to form an understanding of the specifics of the gambling license obtainment process in this material.
Basic Information About Obtaining Gambling License in Different Countries
A gambling license shall be the first thing necessary for the deployment of full-scale online casino activities. Without this authorization document, there may be no question of any safe and stable operation of the company in the gambling market, provision of specialized services to interested persons, and development of the project. It is worth noting separately that the licensing shall be required not only for the operations of online casinos, but also for all kinds of lotteries, bookmaker services, sale of options and a number of other services.
The regulation of the gambling industry and the issuance of the licenses for such activities shall be carried out by a special body existing in any country. Namely it shall form terms and requirements on the basis of which the licensing of willing participants in this business shall be carried out within the country. It shall be also the responsibility of this regulatory body to check whether potential operators of this market comply with these requirements.
Among the established requirements, there shall be paragraphs providing for existence of the list of games, a detailed business plan for the development of the operator’s business, an AML policy taking into account the specifics of local legislation, and others. All this leads to the fact that obtaining the license for gambling applications in different countries shall vary quite perceptibly in terms of labour intensity, formalization time and cost.
Also, the requirements of the registrar body shall include the paragraphs relating to the activities of the enterprise after launch of its operation in this area. In particular, they shall describe keeping and presentation of the enterprise's financial statements, as well as the frequency and procedure for auditing the firm.
Types of Online Gambling Licenses
Without obtaining the appropriate authorization for conducting business in the gambling industry, such an activity shall be considered as the illegal one. In this case, the slightest detected violations will be guaranteed to be accompanied by impressive fines and even harsher sanctions (including imprisonment). But when obtaining this document, one must take into account the following nuance – there are four levels of regulation of the gambling business. Each of these levels shall take into account the specifics of the state, which shall be entitled to:
· monitor the activities of operators involved in the gambling market;
· regulate the gambling activities, taking into account the preferences provided to national companies. Foreign players in this market shall be subject to more stringent requirements and rules for conducting business, compared to the domestic ones;
· prohibit any types of the gambling activity on its territory;
· refuse from regulating this industry on its own territory.
The key rule which we outlined above shall apply to the first group of states – licensing the operators shall be carried out by the special regulatory body. The third and fourth groups of countries allow a different approach to obtaining the authorization documentation – it shall be formalized in offshore jurisdictions. But with a governmental prohibition of gambling, the activities of the offshore operators shall be carried out at their own peril and risk and may lead to serious consequences if such facts are found out by regulatory governmental agencies.
Gambling License: Keeping and Specifics of Obtainment
A gambling license shall allow a company, wishing to operate in this industry, to legally launch the full-scale activities in the gambling market. In particular, it shall be entitled to:
· fulfil a purchase of licensed software from suppliers;
· carry out an integration of various means of electronic payment (including multi-currency payment transactions);
· increase a number of players who will receive evidences of safety of their funds on the operator’s game accounts and servers, as well as the proofs of its honest reputation, basing on the results of payments of won money.
Each state shall form its own norms and conditions for business owners wishing to obtain the gambling license. Among other things, these conditions shall stipulate the requirements for online casinos implemented by operators. Failure to comply with or violation of these requirements already in the process of work shall lead to annulment of the issued license.
Gambling License: Rules and Requirements
It is impossible to outline all aspects of these rules and conditions, since they shall vary greatly from country to country. But general points may be identified. Thus, in particular, the provider which submitted the application shall be obliged to formulate and implement a “responsible gaming policy” in the used software, which must clearly comply with the provisions of the “Prevention of Gambling Addiction”. It shall be also the provider's responsibility to place a “random number generator” certified by the regulator on the online casino website. This mandatory procedure shall confirm fairness of an electronic roulette and the range of other games presented to users on the operator’s website. Moreover, these steps must be taken before accepting financial payments from players and provision of other services.
In addition, the requirements for the potential gambling market operators shall be similar to the requirements for participants in the financial and banking business. In particular, this coincidence shall be described by the following paragraphs:
· impeccable reputation. The image factor may significantly influence the final decision made by officials of the regulatory body;
· detailed information about the company structure, staff schedule, partner companies, financial position, sources of financing activities;
· Proofs of experience availability in the financial sector from the owners and top managers of a company intending to conduct the gambling business on the Internet.
Thus, as you can see for yourself, obtaining the gambling license is not the easiest process, and it is quite problematic for beginners to implement it correctly. That is why Licensing Gaming specialists shall offer everyone their professional consultations and services on preparing the documents for successful licensing in the field of gambling. With our full support at every stage of the process, you will get the desired result in the shortest possible ter