The Legality and Benefits of Online Betting in the UK

Thanks to it's legal status in the country, UK customers have a huge choice of where to bet. As consumers, that's a great thing. Choice means competitions, which leads to bigger odds, more offers and generally a better service. After all, if you're not getting the experience you want from a bookie it's very easy to go and find another one. We recommend to gamble in UK top sites.

Is Online Betting Legal?

Despite the fact that betting has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years and despite the fact it has long been legal in the UK, many people still have some concerns about online betting. The UK is widely regarded as the best regulated gambling market in the world and there is no doubt that many Brits enjoy betting.

From the National Lottery, which certainly falls under the definition of betting, to the Grand National and from a weekly football acca to the odd bet on the biggest golf tournaments, tens of millions of people in the UK place at least one bet each year.

More and more of those bets are placed online and via mobile betting sites (which are essentially classified as online from a legal perspective). Given that we can assume that tens of millions of people aren’t openly breaking the law on a regular basis, it’s safe to say that online betting most certainly is legal.

Modern Gambling Laws

It wasn’t but that we moved towards the modern era of betting. For a number of years the laws had been confusing, contradictory and totally ineffective. Various laws in the 20th century had simply moved betting from one arena to another, with little regulation, licensing or taxation.

A Royal Commission was established to consider the public’s sentiment towards gambling. The Royal Commission made a number of suggestions but it wasn’t until the legislation that these came into law and real change began.

The Betting and Gaming Act meant that from 1st May 1961 betting shops became legal in the UK. Gambling for small sums on games of skill, for example in the pub, also became legal from 1st January that year.

The UK’s appetite for gambling is shown by the fact that within six months of the change of law there were 10,000 betting shops in the UK and 1,000 casinos opened within five years. The main aim of the laws was to take gambling from the streets. In the past many bookmakers had operated in the shadows of the law, using runners to accept bets.

Many of the huge, modern online betting giants, such as Betfred, BetVictor, Coral and Ladbrokes were all very quick to get in on the act. They opened betting shops straight away and expanded with varying degrees of pace.

UK Gambling Regulation and Licensing

As we have said, licensing and regulation in the UK is now undertaken almost exclusively by the Gambling Commission. The Act introduced a law that any bookmaker, online bingo or casino site, poker operator or other gambling site operating via the internet would need a remote license from the Gambling Commission if they were to accept any UK players.

This means that if you are registering at almost any form of online betting site with a UK address and card, that site must have a license from the UK Gambling Commission. Essentially this is good news as the Commission is almost certainly the most respected, vigilant and powerful body of its kind in the world.

That means, in theory at least, that you should have a good degree of safety, security and financial assurance at any site that accepts UK customers. As with most things in life, for those that seek them, there are grey areas and loopholes. However, it is certainly fair to say that when you play at any of the main UK-facing sites, you will have the security of Gambling Commission regulation.