In Israel, it has always been a grey area as to which online casinos could do business with Israeli internet user's. The common perception, at least amongst international casino operators headquartered outside of Israel, was that gaming services could be targeted to Israeli's and that so long as those services catered to bettors residing in Israel, i.e., dedicated customer support and software platforms, there would be no conflict with regulatory legislation.

In respect of a recent court ruling, it now appears the "grey area" has been cleared up a bit. Stemming from a case against the CEO of Victor Chandler, Michael Carlton, Israeli Judge Abraham Heiman ruled that online casinos and gaming companies can no longer "hide behind the fact" that an online gaming company's servers and main point of operations are located outside of Israel. In other words, Israel is no longer going to look the other way against encroachments on their state-run gambling monopoly.

Although Israel has been talking about an online casino gambling crackdown since December, the news of the court verdict still came as a surprise to some, considering the claim of Victor Chandler's Michael Carlton that he was recently speaking with Israeli officials on his own accord in regards to online gaming licensing arrangements. Well, it now appears those licensing arrangements were Israel's way of politely telling Carlton it was time for Victor Chandler to pull out of Israel. Victor Chandler has had a dominating presence in Israel, which included a large marketing campaign last year on buses and billboards. VC recently reported that Israel was one of its top markets. One could see why, considering Israel's gambling monopoly offers returns as low as 42%, will those of VC are 92%.

Victor Chandler has not officially commented on the verdict and how it plans to address the situation. Other online gaming networks, such as Belle Rock Gaming, have already ceased doing business with Israeli bettors. Belle Rock online casinos, such as River Belle and Lucky Nugget Casino have blocked access to player accounts registered in Israel, in addition to notifying Israeli players they will no longer be able to place real money bets effective immediately.