Licensing

Authority

All online bingo sites must operate in accordance with the laws of the nation in which the bingo site is licensed. Online bingo sites are commonly licensed in Malta, Gibraltar United Kingdom, Kahnawake and Curaçao and you can generally see where a site is licensed by looking at the small print on the web pages of the bingo site you want to use.

Each licensing authority has its own set of rules, regulations and benchmarks that the operator needs to achieve in order to get the licence.  As a guideline any UK licence will be the hardest to get.  So you can be sure any company with a UK licence (for example Isle of Man) is beyond reproach in all of its activities.  Both Malta and Gibraltar are also stringent in who they award licences to.  Normally companies opt for these two islands instead of the UK purely on taxation considerations.  Thus companies licensed in either of those territories should be considered trustworthy.  Kahnawake has lower levels of auditing but generally comes ahead of Curaçao countries.  More on gambling licenses.

Site Information

On some sites the licensing information is provided on the home page itself. For example, if you visit the Foxy Bingo home page at www.foxybingo.com and scroll down to the foot of the page, you will see a sign that says “Kahnawake Gaming Commission”.

On other sites you may need to delve a little further to find out where it is licensed. For example, if you visit www.JackpotJoy.com you will need to click on the “Terms” tab to find out that the site is “regulated under official gaming licence number 8048/JAZ, granted by the sovereign Government of the Netherlands Antilles.”

Although different countries have different rules and regulations concerning the issuing of licenses, almost all gaming commissions insist on the following:

• That the bingo organisation will operate legally and ethically at all times.

• That the game(s) offered will be proven fair and tamper proof. (This is why most online bingo sites licence their gaming software from expert developers rather than creating their own.)

• That the information provided to the bingo organisation by players will be transmitted and stored in a secure fashion.

• That the organisation will be careful to ensure that all players are of legal age.

• That all key staff in the bingo organisation are properly licensed. Among other things, this helps to ensure that online bingo is not something used by the criminal fraternity to launder money.

• That the premises and financial records of the organisation will be available as and when the issuing body choose to exercise their right to inspect these.

• That the organisation can prove that it has sufficient money to operate the online bingo site smoothly.

• That customers will be able to withdraw their funds as and when they please.

Once a licence has been issued, it can be revoked at any time if the organisation fails to abide by the terms and conditions of that licence. Even if an organisation does this, it will still need to renew its licence periodically in order for it to continue operating.

 

Last Updated: 07/06/2007