Alderney, the British Channel Island just off the
coast of France, is pleased to announce that following an update to their online
gaming framework, more online casinos and gaming sites are continuing to choose
the Alderney Gaming Commission for their regulatory body of choice. In the last
two months alone, Alderney has granted six more licenses, bringing the total
number of online casino licensees to twenty-five. In October alone, Alderney has
already issued four licenses to WagerWorks and Asia Pacific Gaming, while last
month licenses went to William Hill and SportingBet.
And with monumental changes taking place in the
U.S. online gambling landscape, Alderney is hoping to attract an even larger
number of gaming operators in the coming months. The head of eCommerce
Development in Alderney, Robin Le Prevost, said he is very confident in the new
regulatory package, which incidentally harmonizes well with the online gaming
regulations being adopted in the UK and promulgated by the eCommerce Online
Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA). Prevost also said it is inevitable
that more online casino operators will turn to Alderney as they withdraw from
the increasingly hostile U.S. market.
Prior to rewriting their regulations, Alderney was
not as successful at attracting gaming companies as other jurisdictions like
Kahnawake and Antigua and Barbuda were. However, seeing the need to update their
outdated policies, Alderney constructed a major rewrite, amounting to a new
interest from overseas gambling companies. And while Antigua chooses to do
battle with the U.S. in the midst of the World Trade Organization (which now is
more about principle than business), Alderney is bidding for online casinos to
focus their operations on an expanding European and Asian online gambling
market.
Now, Alderney must prepare to compete with other
notable gaming jurisdictions like the UK, Gibraltar, Isle of Man and Mohawk
territory of Kahnawake in offering a stringent, yet operator-friendly gaming
license. With tight regulation protocols in place, Alderney believes their most
tempting offer (as far as online casinos are concerned) are their taxation laws
and licensing incentive deals. Considering the current rate at which operators
are applying for licenses, these sentiments cannot be dismissed.