When discussing online casinos, it is very common to hear mention of the jurisdiction that a casino is licensed in: Antigua, Costa Rica, the Isle of Man, and so forth. But who are these guys? Have a look at our round-up of the top seven licensing jurisdictions which together license well over 1000 internet casinos. You'll soon see that not all jurisdictions are created equally.

One thing to keep in mind as you look at our round-up is that some jurisdictions report the total number of licenses issued (including skins of other licensed casinos), while others report the number of unique companies holding their licenses. For example: Antigua lists only 33 unique license holders but over 300 total licenses.

Here is the second part of Online Gambling Jurisdictions.

Kahnawake

As one of the few fully functional licensing zones in North America, the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake in Quebec, Canada has received a lot of attention from would-be casino operators. Although the Kahnawake jurisdiction is well-spoken of in the owner-operator community, it is generally less enthusiastically received by the players. A number of Kahnawake casinos have been involved in long-standing disputes with players.

Kahnawake licenses online casinos for a fee of USD $10,000 per year plus a non-refundable deposit of USD $15,000 for “probity and control system testing.”

Website: www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/
Licensees: over 250.

Malta

Online betting was established in Malta beginning in 2000 under the Public Lotto Ordinance to regulate offshore betting offices. Since then, the Lotteries & Gaming Authority (LGA) has developed its methodologies to regulate the procedures of remote gaming operations and in April 2004, revamped Remote Gaming Regulations were published. Malta became the first EU member state to regulate Remote Gaming.

In March 2005, the Malta Remote Gaming Council (www.mrgc.org.mt) was launched to bring together all of Malta's remote gaming licensees in an online forum aimed at creating an ongoing discussion between all stakeholders, ISP providers and legal and financial representatives in the Malta remote gaming industry.

Malta offers five license types, each having five-year duration. All licensees must pay an initial licensing fee of Lm 1,000 (US$3000). There are also recurring licensing fees. The gaming tax is 0.5 percent of turnover. Companies who are granted a Maltese license are not permitted to take bets from the island’s citizens.

Website: www.lga.org.mt, www.mrgc.org.mt
Licensees: approx 50.

United Kingdom

Until the passing of the gambling bill in April of 2005, casino-style online games were specifically prohibited in the United Kingdom. Companies offering internet casino gaming to UK residents had to have their servers and other gambling facilities based off-shore to avoid contravening UK law. UK citizens were not restricted in any way from placing wagers with offshore gambling operations.

The new Gambling Commission is expected to begin regulating and licensing online casinos, sportsbooks, betting exchanges, and poker sites as of September 2007. Lotteries may not be conducted online, but the purchase of traditional lottery tickets may be aided by internet and email technologies provided there remains some action by a human operator. The United Kingdom does allow land-based sportsbook and racebook operators to accept wagers online.

Recent forecasts suggest that UK consumer spending on online gambling will increase from £660m in 2005 to £1.6bn in 2010.

Website: www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk.
Licensees: less than 100.