John Godfrey is stepping down as chair of the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and in his final report warned that a lack of harmony internationally between national regulators will hurt legitimate online gambling sites.
“In my report last year I referred to some of the risks of overlapping regulation as different national regulators seek to control eGambling businesses at both the point of consumption and where those businesses are operated,” Godfrey said. ““The subsequent twelve months have shown that my concerns were well founded. Politicians have persuaded themselves that their citizens can only be protected if their national regulator duplicates the efforts of other regulators.”
Godfrey said high-quality operators offering secure and well-regulated services will be required to meet the differing requirements of every country and to submit to the bureaucratic intervention of every one of them.
“The costs and frustrations imposed on the operators will divert management from more useful tasks while the confusion of responsibility between regulators, petty differences of detail and the failure to adopt common standards in addressing the main issues will add little to the protection of customers,” he said.
