Before 2018, it was hard to imagine betting at a casino not licensed by the Gambling Commission. Indeed, the UKGC does an excellent job of ensuring bettors have access to safe and reliable casinos.
Unfortunately, the iGaming landscape in the UK has been changing in the past few years. More and more people are joining foreign casinos not licensed by the UKGC. The reasons has everything to do with GamStop.
What is GamStop?
GamStop is an independent organization that helps gamblers take an active step in avoiding problem gambling. GamStop works with all online casinos and sportsbooks in the UK.
If you sign up on GamStop and self-exclude yourself from gambling, GamStop forwards your information to all of its partner casinos. These operators blacklist your details and bar you from gambling for the duration of time you decide—six months, two years or five years.
What if you self-exclude on GamStop and change your mind a day later? This is one of the reasons casinos not on GamStop are getting popular. GamStop supports no cancellations.
If you self-exclude for a year, you can’t gamble in the UK for a year. Worse, you may have problems finding a casino that will accept you once your self-imposed ban is over.
Non-GamStop Casinos: How they’re Disrupting iGaming in the UK
Casinos not on gamstop provide an alternative way to gamble online if you don’t want to deal with GamStop casinos. The casinos are based overseas in Malta or Curacao. But that isn’t to say they’re unsafe.
They’re licensed, secure, and reliable. As a result, they’ve become tremendously popular in the UK. Tag along to learn how they disrupting the remote gambling industry in the UK:
Taking Away Customers from GamStop Casinos
As we mentioned earlier, UK-based gamblers have always loved local casinos. People trust websites licensed by the UKGC. But then GamStop came along and some people were forced to look for alternative casinos overseas.
Now, non-GamStop casinos have succeeded in taking a significant slice of the UK gambling pie. According to digital marketing experts, more than 10,000 people search for casinos not on GamStop every month. That’s a huge number of people fleeing UK-based websites.
Is GamStop the only reason people are looking for offshore casinos? Not entirely. The UK prohibits credit card use for gambling payments. It also requires casinos to enforce deposit and bonus limits.
With thousands of customers abandoning casinos in the UK, lots of companies are experiencing reduced profits. This will continue to happen until bettors are pleased with how GamStop works.
Better and Bigger Bonuses
UK casinos will probably not drop GamStop any time soon. But they’re having to change some of their policies to keep their customers happy. Let’s start with bonus promotions.
Both gambling sites and gamblers love bonuses. Casinos use bonuses as marketing tools to attract new customers. By comparison, players love bonuses because they enlarge their bankrolls.
Now, casinos in the UK have always played second fiddle to foreign websites when providing quality promotions. But with everyone looking for a non-GamStop casinos, Gamstop sites are having to change their ways.
Although they don’t give out lots of money, casinos in the UK provide fair bonuses. We’re talking about no wager requirements with welcome bonuses. Or, they set a small number of playthrough times.
Banking and Withdrawals
Non-GamStop casinos can be inconvenient to someone who likes to pay through the Pound Sterling. But other than that, they’re incredible. When it comes to deposits, these casinos have no restrictions.
You can use credit cards for deposits at offshore casinos. This is something you can’t do when using local casinos. Secondly, you can use crypto. Bitcoin is supported at some UK betting shops. But the majority of them don’t.
Of course, you can also use many of the payment methods accepted in the UK: PayPal, Skrill, Visa, MasterCard, EcoPayz or bank transfer. To stand out, casinos not on gamstop are working hard to improve the banking sector.
Not only do they offer fast, free deposits, but they’re also quick with withdrawals. You can cashout your money today and receive it within a couple of hours. How fast you get your money depends on a few things, though.
Choosing a fast payment method helps. A withdrawal request made through Google Pay will reach you faster than using wire transfer. Secondly, your cashout request may take more time if it’s your first time withdrawing money at the casino.
Expanding Game Libraries
Truth be told, UK-based casinos offer a wide range of games. You can play slots from almost every major software developer: NetEnt, Microgaming and Playtech, to name a few.
Still, not every casino offers top-paying games. Some operators have slots from big-name developers. But they don’t always offer top-RTP games. Now, with people shifting to non-GamStop casinos, operators are having to rethink the games they provide.
In other words, casinos in the UK are fighting to keep their market share intact. And the way they’re doing this is by introducing high-quality, top-paying games. What’s more, they’re expanding their libraries to include new studios whose games tend to be overlooked by UK casinos.
Reduced Tax Income for HMRC
One of the biggest impacts of non-GamStop casinos affects UK’s revenue authority. Most casinos not on GamStop are located overseas. This means they don’t pay taxes to the UK Government.
Yet, they’re now receiving a lot of money from casino players based in the UK. They’re under no obligation to pay taxes in the UK, meaning it’s the British government losing money because of the rising demand for non GamStop casinos.
What can the UK government do about this? Technically, it can’t do anything to stop people from using foreign casinos. However, it could introduce rules that make it easier deactivate accounts from GamStop.
Better yet, the UKGC could replace GamStop with a better program. If this happened, people would have no reason to find non-GamStop casinos. This will probably never happen though. As such, foreign casinos will continue to disrupt the iGaming sector in the UK.
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