A Small Island Grows to Be a Gambling Powerhouse
Alderney gambling
Alderney has one online gambling license per 24 residents.
Alderney is a tiny island based on the English Channel (or what the French call as Canal La Manche). It belongs to the British Crown and has a population of 2,400. This would normally make it a very insignificant location if it wasn’t for the gambling industry. Not that millions come to Alderney to play. Quite the opposite.
What the island does is specializing in issuing gambling licenses to online and mobile casinos, which then operate globally. Many of well-known brands operate under Alderney license. How many licenses have been issues by this tiny place? Quite many.
As casino gambling news report, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission has just proudly announced the issuing of 100th e-gambling license. And the lucky winner is: Relax Gaming Network. This is not to say that anyone can get one and, as Robin Le Prevost, the island’s head of electronic commerce, stated: “The commission have got very high standards and they’re not going to lower that in anyway just to attract more numbers.”
What is truly amazing is that the commission operates for only little over a decade and in all this time it has attracted 100 online casinos to base themselves on the island. This is, however, not an isolated case as many other British islands have become either gambling or financial centers.
[quote type=”large” align=”left”] No matter how distant from the United States, some of the Alderney-licensed gambling enterprises offer betting to the Americans. [/quote] When Full Tilt Poker site was investigated by US Justice Department for money laundering and fraud, the Alderney under Yankee pressure had to shoot down the site. This, indeed, has ticked of many as outrageous. The point is that Alderney will seek to protect its reputation while keeping at bay, for as much as possible, the giant on the other side of the ocean.
[shadbox size=”small” color=”light” align=”aligncenter”]This is not to say that Internet gamblers including online blackjack or poker players will see their casinos shot down. This doesn’t happen often, but still happens as the story of Bodog, shot down by the US, proves.[/shadbox]