[clevfan]

Online casinos face advert crackdown
By Matthew Garrahan, Leisure Industries Correspondent
Published: November 10 2005 02:00 | Last updated: November 10 2005 02:00

Internet gambling companies that spend millions advertising in taxis and on the London Underground face a government crackdown amid concern that many of them are breaking the law.

The offshore companies take bets from punters in the UK but, unlike land-based casinos, are allowed to advertise because they are outside the jurisdiction of British law.

However, current laws forbid them from offering inducements, such as advertising free entry to online poker competitions, offering to match initial stakes or indicating the value of the pot or prize that may be won.

These restrictions have been flouted by many online poker companies and casino sites in advertisements in newspapers, on the Tube and on the side of taxis.

Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, will today promise that law- breaking companies will be prosecuted. "It's clear that some adverts have been breaking the law," she said.

"I am not willing to turn a blind eye to this and have agreed with the Gambling Commission that we should crack down on advertisers and publishers who knowingly break the law."

The crackdown is a further blow to online gaming, which has suffered from plunging investor confidence and share prices.

The department of culture, media and sport and the Gambling Commission, the industry's regulator, will write jointly to advertisers, publishers and internet casino operators spelling out the government's position on the interpretation of the law. The letter will say that the Gambling Commission will recommend prosecution to the Crown Prosecution Service of advertisers and publishers who break the law.