SBC News Thomas Smallwood: unlicensed operators are popular for a reason
Thomas Smallwood

Thomas Smallwood: unlicensed operators are popular for a reason

Thomas Smallwood
Thomas Smallwood

Thomas Smallwood, CEO of SKS365 Group GmbH – parent company of Planetwin365, believes that national regulators should be taking their lead from the gambling industry’s customers if it wants to successfully regulate the product in this cross-border age.

Cross border betting and gaming remains a hot topic in many countries and cries come from various quarters regarding how best to step up a fight against it in the light of the ‘Legge di Stabilita’ which finally enabled a number of prominent dot coms (including planetwin365) to enter the Italian regulatory system.

It is often referred to as ‘illegal’ betting but I would urge a word of caution and say it is important to understand exactly what is being talked about when we speaking of ‘illegal’ betting and what the associated dangers are.

Whilst there may be obvious risks and many underground bookies are there to rip people off, it is too simplistic and indeed counter-intuitive to label something that is not within a national regulatory system as dangerous to consumers simply due to its ‘illegality’.

The kind of scaremongering that suggests winnings will not be paid by a company which is not nationally licensed or that intimates that player protection is of no concern to these ‘cross-border’ operators is the equivalent of hiding one’s head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the bigger picture.

I am fully aware of the nefarious intentions of some back street gambling establishments which operate totally on the wrong side of the law, but lumping everyone into the same basket and demonising them is not the way to achieve a better and more inclusive industry.

As with any major socio-economic and political issues, such as immigration for example, the best way to address a problem is to openly talk about it in realistic terms, listening to various sides. I would say the same is true of gambling.

Turn a Negative into a Positive

The focus should not only be on how to directly pursue truly illegal gambling with the forces of law but also thinking positively how to attract more companies into the legal sphere and ensure as little breathing space as possible for totally illegitimate operators.

Governments and regulatory bodies would do well to openly acknowledge that overseas remote operators may frequently be very successful because they are offering something that the end user wants, they may indeed be providing a better service than the local licensed operators and may better guarantee the fast pay out of winnings, they may indeed offer greater security.

If you want to combat the spread of unlicensed gambling, then it requires some intelligent thought as to why it continues to prosper and at the heart of this issue it is often a question of competitive advantage but to place this entirely in terms of taxation is also naïve, as outlined from the points above.

I think it is important to see the point of view of the end user; why is this person using this product? How does s/he want to bet in any given market? And then allow this to influence the establishment of the best framework in which to license operators and simultaneously protect the consumer.

The industry is full of entrepreneurial spirit and there are many companies looking to bring extra value to the customer in whatever manner they can. It is after all a highly competitive industry so ensuring that there is a framework in which conditions are also competitive, from day one, can ensure that national licensing becomes a logical step for the vast majority of bookmakers and therefore swells the national coffers.

And I repeat, I am not simply talking about lowering betting duties to increase profits, there is much, much more to it than that.

Italy has recognised its national peculiarities; the CTD business model, the importance of a full and comprehensive betting offer for the player and, I won’t deny, is also recognising the greater ease for companies operating under profit-based taxation. This recognition and continuously evolving process must be the key to bringing more gambling companies into national legal frameworks.

This article was first published here.

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