Online Gambling: Challenges to National Sovereignty and Regulation

Online gambling utilises advanced telecommunications technology to provide access to gambling across national borders, presenting unprecedented opportunities for industry and new challenges for government regulation and national sovereignty. It also promises to revolutionise the way people gamble, raising critical issues about social and economic impacts. Nations have taken a variety of approaches to online gambling, ranging from unregulated legalisation to prohibition, creating a perplexing and uncertain legal environment. This paper will examine the development of Internet and interactive gambling, the responses by governments and industry, and the issues for policy-makers and regulators.